Schisms
by Kalenath Shok-Tan
Summary: A schism is a split or division between strongly opposed sections or parties, caused by differences in opinion or belief. When those parties are Tenno? You might want to DUCK! This is a fanfiction. I own none of the rights to Warframe.
1. Chapter 1

**Waking**

Cold…

It was cold. Everything was cold. He was cold. The cold was everything. He lay still, not fully aware. No damage was registering. No pain was felt. But the cold was so pervasive it was hard to tell where the cold ended and the body began. A signal came.

_Tenno, you are needed._

The voice… struck something deep within him. It was female. He was male and the voice was female. He knew that. Did he know this person? He was not sure. He struggled against the cold and felt sudden pain erupt within him. But he was not a slave to pain. He was the master of his body. Of his warframe. He paused. Warframe? He felt the voice inside his mind again.

_You are waking from cryo, Tenno._

Cryo. Cryogenics was the study of the production and behavior of materials at very low temperatures. He knew that. Somehow. He knew… It didn't come. What had happened? Where was he? What was going on? Nothing made any sense. Everything was cold. He was…

Something changed. He was moving. No, whatever he was _in_ was moving. He was not sure what was happening. Or why. This was… odd. What was he doing in this place? He prodded his systems and they responded sluggishly. This was intolerable! HE was better than this. Far, far better than this. He was…

Who was he? He could not remember. He activated his sensors package and paused. He was inside a small chamber. The walls were made of glass lined with an odd but familiar gray metal. But it was the frost that covered every surface that he could ascertain without moving that made him wonder.

_Cryo… Cold…_ He thought, his mental processes sluggish. He had been frozen? That… felt right, but he had no idea why.

_Enemies are approaching, Tenno._ The female voice spoke again. _There are allies in the area, but they are…distracted. You must rouse yourself._

Familiar sounds came to his auditory sensors. Gunfire. Screams. Familiar screams! He knew those sounds! But from where? The pod shuddered to a halt and he felt it reorient until he was lying on his back inside it. He stared down at his hand, the golden bio-mechanical armor that covered it as familiar as his own heartbeat. After an eternity, perhaps five seconds, his fingers moved as he commanded them to. They clenched into a fist and he felt anticipation.

_Waking should not be this slow._ Where did that thought come from? As he fought to move what he could in the small confines of the pod, he cast out with his mind, called by instinct. Or need. _What is happening?_

_Your pod was found deep in the catacombs of a derelict Orokin Tower, Tenno._ The female voice was calmly. _Until a very short time ago, we did not know you were there. The enemy are massing to destroy the pod._

_Corrupted?_ He asked. What? What was that from? Somehow he knew what they were. Poor benighted souls who had run afoul of the Tower's neural sentry and been enslaved for it.

_Yes._ The calm voice in his head replied. _We are sending an extraction team, but they have been delayed. The team that is supposed to be protecting your pod has run into difficulties. The pod will open shortly, but it will drop you into the middle of a battle._

_Battle is what I do. _The Tenno –the word felt very right- said just as calmly. His limbs were moving now and he reached up to his chest to grab the haft of his preferred weapon. Any estimate on enemy numbers?

_They are feral and seem to have a breeding ground on the derelict._ The female was still that maddening calm. But he found it… oddly soothing for some reason. Part of him found that wrong, but he began his prebattle mantra. He also checked all of his battle systems. Low power, but his armor was intact. His preferred weapon was at hand, but no others.

_I am Tenno._ He said in his mind. _Warrior of the Orokin. I am Tenno. None can stand before me. I am Tenno and I am __**ready**__!_ He hit the side of the pod and paused as nothing happened. _That is where the emergency release is. Why did it not open?_

_You have been asleep for long time, Tenno. Systems have…deteriorated. _The female voice was quiet now. _We did not know where you went, Tenno._ Was she…sad now? _We wanted to help but you fled before we could__._ That felt… right to the golden warrior. But he had bigger problems currently.

_If you want to help, open the pod!_ The Tenno said sharply and then he recoiled as a hideous face appeared in his field of view. The Corrupted had once been Infested. That was clear from the misshapen forms. He drew back a powerful fist and slammed it into the glass. The Infested retreated a pace, but then slammed its tentacle into the pod before flying into the air. Despite the soundproofing of the pod, he could hear the scream of the monster as another Tenno –a Mag apparently- crushed it with her power. _Enough!_ He thundered in his mind and slammed both hands into the pod cover. _This_ time, the pod opened.

He took in the tactical scene at a glance. A Mag warframe was perched on a set of boxes nearby. Enemies were everywhere. The Mag's Burston Prime rifle sang and some of those enemies died, but he could tell just by looking at her that she had exhausted her power saving him. Two Infested, not a type he knew but four legged, ran towards the Mag from her blind side and he decided to return the favor. He reached down to where his preferred weapon had fallen when he had sat up and straightened in the pod. The golden Scindo flashed in the limited light of the Orokin derelict and he smiled grimly under his helmet as he rose to his full height. He did not have full power, but… the Rhino Prime had enough.

A mighty roar caromed off the walls in the distance and energy suffused every pore of the warfare and the being inside it. Then, he charged. Both of the Infested were slammed away from the boxes they were trying to climb and the Mag spun and stared down before nodding and returning to the fight. He barely had enough power for his defensive ability and cast it just as one of the huge forms slid a tentacle at him. He caught it with his Scindo and the monster gave a shrill scream as he deftly amputated the appendage with his axe. The enemy closed and he did as he always had. He put his feet down and harvested pieces.

Then it was all chaos and death, blood and screaming. Every so often and enemy would fall, pierced by a shot from the Mag. He was dimly aware that the other warframe was covering his flanks as he strode into the midst of the Infested, his Scindo flashing. The enemy came to meet him, baying their bestial battlecry. It made no difference. Some of the Corrupted Infested used powers that seemed kind of like Tenno abilities, but his defenses were strong. None of them survived more than two hits from the golden battle axe and suddenly, he was standing in a cleared area where the pod he had been in lay open like a wilted flower.

He shook the gore off his axe and nodded to the Mag who was climbing down from her box. Her hand gesture of 'Injuries?' showed concern in her body language and he shook his head. He returned it and she shook her own head. Good. He hated losing kin. He had… lost so much. That thought hit him like a Fragor hammer and he stood for a moment before he saw the Mag waving to him.

_Well done, Tenno._ The female voice in his mind was still calm. _Transport is enroute._

The Mag nodded, but from her body language was distracted by something. The golden warrior paused and looked around, but saw nothing. The Mag shook her head violently and then started off, keeping her speed down. He kept up easily, and kept his guard up. He had fought Infested before. Many times. He remembered blurry images of battle, or desperate skirmishes. Some won, some lost. He went still as three more Tenno appeared out of the shadows. A Nova, an Ash and an Excalibur. The Mag… ignored them and kept right on moving even as the other three did double takes on seeing the newcomer. One of them –the Ash- made a gesture of inquiry, but the Mag ignored him and the golden warrior did likewise. He wasn't sure what was going on, but the other three seemed…furtive? Odd that.

No more Corrupted appeared as they approached a set of airlocks. He nodded. He knew –somehow- that each led to a Tenno spacecraft. The Mag waved him forward and he shrugged before placing himself in the humanoid shaped alcove. It felt… wrong to place himself in the ship, but… he didn't really have a choice. Even for Tenno, the Void was not a safe place to hang around. He was stunned when the Mag entered and started cursing.

"Bunch of flipping idiots." The Mag snapped as she moved to an alcove to divest herself of weapons. "Is it too much to ask for backup in defending the pod?" She undid her rifle and racked it, but left her pistol and sword in place as she turned back at the stunned warrior. "You okay?"

"Intact." The other replied. "You seem upset."

"I am." The Mag said with a sigh as she sat in the control chair and the ship hummed, taking the pair away from the Tower entrance. "I prefer to work with my clan. When I can't… I am often unpleasantly surprised by the antics of teammates." The other stared at her and she shrugged. "Our orders were to defend the pod until extraction could get here. You saw how many of the team were there." It wasn't a question.

"What were they _doing_?" He asked, dumbfounded. "If not for you, I would right now be biomass of the Infested or Corrupted."

"I don't know _what_ they were doing." The Mag said sourly. "I don't really _care_. Some Tenno seem more interested in getting kills than accomplishing the mission." The golden warrior staggered and the Mag looked at him. "You okay?"

"I don't know." The other replied. "It just seems so far-fetched. How long did I sleep?"

"No one knows." The Mag said with a grunt. "Maybe the Lotus, but she isn't talking about that."

"The… Lotus?" The other asked slowly. "I… She was the voice in my head, yes?" The Mag nodded and he returned it. "I…see."

"Procedure is to take newly woken Tenno to a colony for a full medical check." The female Tenno said quietly. "It won't be a long flight."

"I am fine." The male replied. "If we are needed, I can be of use."

"You will need a ship of your own. The colony has them." The Mag said with another shrug. "If you violate procedure, they can get sticky." She froze as he did. "Problem?"

"I don't know. The word… 'procedure'." The man said slowly. "It… resonated in me. I am not sure if it was good or bad."

"They are going to want to look you over." The Mag commented. "We have had some… unpleasant surprises recently."

"Surprises by their very nature are rarely pleasant." The male Tenno replied with a hint of humor. "But if it were easy…" He paused as the Mag gave a chuckle.

"If it were easy, they wouldn't need _us_." The Mag had a grin in her voice now. "I am Karen."

"I do not remember my name." The other said slowly. "I remember a designation. RB-6."

"That won't work." Karen had a scowl in her voice now. "That sounds like something the Corpus would have."

"_Corpus_?" The male Tenno asked carefully. "What is that?"

"_They…_" She emphasized the word. "…are one of the enemies we are facing. Infested and the Grineer are the other main forces we are trying to keep from utterly devastating the remains of the solar system."

"I see." The male replied uneasily. "Infested I… remember. Some." Indeed, the memories were there, but fuzzy and indistinct. But what he did remember was awful. "Grineer?" He asked.

"Degenerate clones." Karen winced a bit. "They multiply faster than we can kill them. Their entire society is based on strength." The other looked at her and she shrugged. "The strong taking from the weak isn't necessarily a good thing, especially since they consider every single other form of life vermin to be exterminated. Humans and Tenno especially."

"Ick." He did not respond for a moment and then sighed. "So… What happened?"

"No one really knows." Karen looked at him. "You okay?" He realized he was shaking.

"Not sure." He replied. He focused on his body and it obeyed him after a moment. "I feel… odd."

"We need to get you checked out." Karen hit a set of controls. "Word of warning, they are very down on weapons inside the colony. There have been a few… incidents."

"Without my axe, I am nothing." The other said quickly and then paused. Where had that come from? Karen looked at him and he shrugged. "I… do not _feel_ wrong, but something is."

"Should only take a couple of hours." Karen checked her screens again. "And no enemies on any trajectories that can detect us, so we won't have to evade." He looked at her and she shrugged again. "Secrecy and stealth keep us alive. All of the other enemies in system outnumber us manifold."

"Numbers do not win a war." The other said slowly.

"No, but they _help_." Karen's voice was sour. "Any Tenno may be a match for a thousand Grineer. But if there are three or four million of us, and ten _billion_ of them?" She tilted her head and the other nodded reluctantly. "And their numbers grow daily."

"Then… We pick our fights." The male Tenno said calmly. "We strike and vanish."

"Exactly." Karen replied easily. "We may not be able to match them head to head, but we don't have to. The Grineer are big, strong and mean. But they are clumsy. The Corpus are fewer, but with higher technology. The problem with them is that they revere Orokin technology as religious artifacts." The other frankly stared at her and she shrugged yet again. "Crazy, I know. But since when do religious fanatics have to act smart?"

"They revere _technology_?" The male Tenno demanded, stunned. "That is… I have no words."

"It gets worse." Karen's voice was soft and filled with hate now. The other looked at her and she nodded slowly. "They apparently decided that _any_ Orokin technology that they find belongs to them. They dismantle it and use it, despite the dangers." The male Tenno inhaled sharply and Karen nodded. "And if they find a warframe? They do the same thing." Now he gagged and she made a hateful noise. "Yeah."

"People have done horrors in the name of religion since the dawn of recorded history, but… geez…" The Rhino sounded like he wanted to be sick. "Tell me we are fighting them too!" He snapped.

"Oh yeah." Karen sounded more than bit smug now and the other relaxed. "They got their clocks cleaned a while back by the Grineer, but are starting to push back."

"And… Infested you said." The Rhino was shaking his head now. "I remember… they were suddenly everywhere." It still wasn't clear, but he could remember the sudden shock, the fear, the confusion.

"No one –except maybe the Lotus- knows all of what happened." Karen sounded sad now. "We lost a lot when Orokin collapsed."

"Collapsed?" The Rhino repeated slowly. "Completely?"

"Yeah." Karen's confirmation was flat. "A few human survivors managed to eke out meager existences in hard to find places around the solar system. The Corpus trade with all of them, and _their_ focus is profit. Their religion is based on profit and technology."

"A bad combination." The Rhino mused and Karen nodded emphatically. "And then the Infested were not gone. They can't be eradicated."

"Nope." Karen exhaled slowly. "Not for lack of people trying, but finding every single breeding mass is… well, not impossible. But improbable in the extreme."

"Might as well be impossible then." The Rhino Prime had a hint of humor in his voice now. "And now… these Grineer. Clones…" He made a disgusted noise and Karen chuckled without humor.

"Oh, we all agree about that." Karen's voice was odd now. Not humorous, not angry. Somewhere in between. "The only good thing about them is that they are generally dumb."

"Good." The Rhino shook himself. "So… The docs will want to poke and prod me? Geez… I had enough of that before…" Indeed, he could see shadowy memories of forms on medical garb and gleaming instruments. Why did he suddenly feel fear? "I… Tenno Karen… This is…" He shook his head and Karen stared at him.

"Are you okay?" Her voice held genuine concern. He noted that her hand was on her pistol. Wise of her.

"I don't know." He admitted. "This is… nothing I remember feeling before."

"Okay." Karen shook her head. "We will get you to the colony, they can get you out of your warframe and…" She trailed off as the Rhino made a noise of shock. "What?"

"Get… me _out_…?" The Rhino demanded.

"Yeah." Karen sounded confused. "Get you out." She paused. "Why?"

"Tenno Karen." The Rhino said slowly. "I cannot leave my warframe."

"_What?_" Karen demanded. "Since _when_?"

"That is the way it has always been, Tenno Karen." Karen stared at him and then slumped in place.

"Oh… dear…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Confused**

"No."

The word was calm and clear. But the tension in the room went through the roof. Karen stood by one wall, her Mag warframe showing her distress as clearly as if she were in street clothes. The Rhino Prime stood alone in the middle of the room, where he had stood since the doctors started to scan him. The six guards who had shown up as soon as Karen had docked her ship also stood by the wall, hands on their weapons, but none drawn. Yet. The doctor shook his head.

"Tenno, we need to be sure than nothing was done to you." The doctor and nurse did not move from their scanner arrays. Then again, the Rhino wasn't being belligerent. He just said 'No'. "We need to take your warframe off."

"You want to take my skin off." The Rhino was still calm, but all the guards twitched. "I don't think that is a good idea."

"It is not your skin!" The doctor said sharply. "It is bio-mechanical armor that has neurologically fused to you."

"Is it?" The Rhino asked slowly. "Really?" He turned to a display nearby. "What do you see on the screen, doc?" Karen stared from the Rhino to the screen, where the scans of the male Tenno were shown. There was… no disconnect between his warframe and the rest of his body. She swallowed hard and Rhino shook his head. "Doc?" He prodded.

"It is an anomaly that we need to evaluate." The doctor said calmly. "You won't feel it. We can…" He trailed off as Rhino stepped away from the scanners and the guards all went for their weapons. "Stop!" He begged.

"You want to take what I am from me." The Rhino's words were still slow and considered. "Whether it causes pain or not is immaterial, doc." The guards all raised their weapons, but the Rhino knelt in the middle of the floor. "I do not fight Tenno, so… do what you will. I will not aid you."

Everyone stared as he started to meditate. Karen shook her head slowly, utterly baffled by all this. He had not wanted to give up his axe. That had been clear to anyone with eyes, let alone any other senses. But he had when she had pleaded for him to. He hadn't wanted to do as the doctors had wished. But he had. Now…? His patience was obviously exhausted. She stiffened as the doctor shook his head.

"Guards." The doctor said slowly.

"_Don't!_" Karen hadn't meant to scream that. Had she? Half the guards spun to cover her, but she had left all of her weapons in her ship, and she hadn't moved. "Don't! Please!" She begged. "He is being reasonable! Don't push him!"

"We need to know what is wrong with him, Tenno Karen." The doctor sounded genuinely worried.

"There _isn't_ anything wrong with him!" Karen declared. "You can't _find_ anything wrong with him! Can you?" She demanded.

"No." The doctor admitted. "But this isn't right."

"Doctor." Karen spoke slowly and carefully, aware of every nuance, every movement in the room. "Answer me this… Who were the First?" The doctor stared at her, uncomprehending. "We came from them, but no one knows _how_. Where did they come from? Who were they? How did they all get…?" She nodded to the silent Rhino. "…_Prime_ warframes?" The doc stared at her and then his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. She nodded.

"You are not _saying_…?" The nurse hadn't spoken since they had arrived, but now she fell out of her chair recoiling from the shock. She rose carefully and sat again.

"I don't know if he is. He doesn't remember." Karen admitted. The guards got what she was saying and more than one of them lowered their weapons, faces a mix of awe and fear. Karen shook her head. "We need more information and pushing him will not work. He may not _fight_ you, but he doesn't _have_ to. And if he _is_…" She swallowed hard. "And you _hurt_ him…" The doctor stared at her and slowly went pale. "Yeah."

"Oh dear." The doctor sounded like he wanted to be sick. "This doesn't make sense. We need to start checking records."

"He isn't violent, doctor." Karen said softly. "He could be. But he chooses _not_ to be."

"We cannot allow him access to the main colony, Tenno Karen." The doctor said softly. "Not without a lot more information."

"He didn't want to come here." Karen shook her head. "He wanted…" She looked at the silent warrior. "…to make a difference. To fight. What say we let him?"

"That is not my call." The doctor took a deep breath and then started shutting the scanner down. "I will… start a record's search." He glared around at the guards and nurse who all looked awed now. "And not a word."

"But… doctor…!" The nurse started and then gave a squeak as his glare turned icy. "Yes, doctor."

"The last thing we need right now is more confusion in the colony." The doctor said with a sigh. "Between Serene's escapades, Grina's foolishness, and Nikis'… um…" He paused as Karen chuckled.

"Unconventional diplomacy?" Karen asked dryly. "I saw it firsthand, doc."

"That works." The doc said with a sour chuckle. "Yeah. Between the others and Nikis' 'unconventional diplomacy'… things are remarkably unsettled. We have had two full blown protests in the least three weeks." Karen stiffened and the doc nodded. "The Warriors leave us to ourselves. Maybe too much…" He mused.

"Tenno serve." Karen said slowly. "We do not rule."

"Sometimes we have no choice, Tenno Karen." All eyes turned to the door as it opened and a form known to most in the room stepped in. Elder Mavri looked… tired. "After all, who commands Tenno?"

"An acclaimed leader." Karen said, bowing formally. Mavri waved irritably at her.

"Don't start, girl." Mavri snapped. "I am not in the mood. Your clan just loves dropping live grenades in my lap, don't you?"

"Elder…" Karen winced. "I didn't bring Nikis… I wouldn't even _try_ to control him." Every Tenno in the room winced. Karen had seen it. Mavri had seen it. The guards and other support staff… had all see holos.

"You know better." Mavri said with a long suffering sigh. "Sometimes I dearly wish that old coot had croaked. We need him… But geez." He nodded to the guards and they filed out. The nurse fled quickly but the doctor paused as Mavri held up a hand. "Any complications, doctor?"

"No." The doctor said softly. "Just the… oddity." Mavri jerked his head and the doctor left as well.

"_Oddity_…?" Mavri muttered. "How _far_ have we fallen?" He wasn't speaking to Karen, but she perked up anyway.

"Elder?" Karen looked from the golden Rhino to the now motionless Elder and back.

"What say you?" Mavri asked the silent Rhino.

"I don't know _what_ to say." The kneeling Tenno's voice was reflective. "I don't _think_ I am the First. That feels… wrong. I am not sure why."

"Well." Mavri nodded with a small grimace. "Better to get you out of here before the news hits the main grapevine."

"Still faster than light, huh?" The Rhino had a smile in his voice. "I remember _that_."

"Yeah, sometimes it is useful. Not often." Mavri grimaced as a chime sounded. He pulled a pad from his pocket and sighed. "And now… it begins… There is a delegation demanding to speak with you."

"A delegation?" The Rhino sounded both amused and concerned. "Elder, I am a Warrior, no more. No less. A public speaker I am not."

"They won't care." Mavri sounded sour now. "We forget too easily just precarious our existence actually is. If the Grineer massed for an assault on this place… We wouldn't last long." Karen gasped and Mavri shook his head. "Tenno Karen, Tenno exist by remaining in the shadows. If the Grineer came with two or three Fomorians and a couple dozen Galleons, could enough warriors come to our aid to stop them? In time? And even if they could…"

"They would send more." Karen said softly. "As many as it took. There are other colonies…" But she was pleading. Mavri looked at her and would have spoken, but his com chimed again. He stared at it and winced. "Elder?"

"None of the other colonies are this large." Mavri said with a shrug. "We knew this day was coming. But… we had hoped it would not be for a long time."

"What is happening?" Karen asked, suddenly afraid.

"Take him to your ship, Tenno Karen." Mavri said sternly as he strode to… a wall. He hit something and a panel opened showing a passage. "This maintenance tunnel will lead you to the docks."

"Elder what is going on?" Karen demanded, not moving. But the Rhino rose and bowed to the older Tenno.

"Tenno serve." Mavri sounded… sad now. "We do not rule. As the first commanded, so we obey." He bowed his head. "Not all feel that way."

"No." Karen shook her head, horrified. "No… It can't be… Not…revolution."

"Will giving me to them stop this?" The Rhino asked softly.

"No." Mavri said with a sigh. "At least the other Warriors have been warned. If they have any sense at all, they will stay away until we can settle this. Hopefully, it will not come to bloodshed." All three jumped as a thud sounded form the door to the room. "Maybe…" Mavri qualified. But you have to get out of here, Tenno Karen. You as well." He nodded to the Rhino who nodded back.

"I am sorry I was the catalyst for this." The Rhino sounded sad as he stepped to the hidden panel. Something started slamming against the door now. Karen moved to block it. "Tenno Karen, come away."

"Can you not come with us, Elder?" Karen demanded. "There is… I need to…"

"No. My duty is here. Tell Karl…" Mavri said softly as he slowly and gently pressed her to the hidden passage. "I will do what I can, but this colony will in all likelihood be compromised. The idiots have no idea how dangerous the enemy actually _is_. If the worst happens and the Grineer find this refuge, my orders are this: 'No rescues'. To try would be foolhardy and likely nothing but traps."

"Elder…" Karen was crying as the Rhino took hold of her and pulled her into the secret passage. The hatch sealed behind them and the huge Tenno led Karen along for a moment before she shook free of his grip with a snarl. "I should _fight_!"

"Fight _who_?" The Rhino asked calmly. "Other Tenno? Medics, shopkeepers, traders, _children_?" His voice was hard now.

"I…" Karen swallowed hard and nodded. "You are right and so is he. But… It hurts to run from a fight."

"This battle is not over." The Rhino's words were calm and assured. "It may not be won with swords or firearms, but it is a battle nonetheless. It is also not one that either of us is trained for."

"Right." Karen sighed deeply, took a long breath and nodded. "Best thing we can do is remove ourselves from the situation. Allow Mavri to de-escalate it. If he can." A hatch showed ahead, helpfully marked 'Docking'. "Think they are waiting for us?"

"If they are, don't kill anyone." The Rhino's soft words were a command and Karen nodded. "Ready when you are."

Karen took a deep breath and hit the hatch open. The docking area beyond was silent. She made a gesture. 'Trap?' Rhino shrugged, activated his Iron Skin and stepped out into the open.

"You there!" An excited voice called from down the bay as Karen ran towards where her ship was docked. "Stop!" Rhino placed himself between the running Mag and the group of ill-assorted Tenno who had been milling around the entrance to the bay. "We just want to talk!"

"I have nothing to say." The Rhino said sternly. "Stand away. Now." He commanded. More than one of the unarmed Tenno backed away from his voice, but a few did not.

"You!" One of the apparent leaders, a food services employee by his uniform, stepped closer. "You are the First!"

"No I am _not_!" The Rhinos napped. More than one of the group froze in place at his harsh tone. "You did all this…for what? To _talk_ to me? No. You did it because you _could_. You have _no_ idea what you have done either. But you will _learn_. Even if I _was_ the First, what would _he_ say about rebellion? Hmm?" He demanded, stepping back as Karen opened the airlock of her ship and beckoned to him. "Tenno _serve_. Tenno _do not_ rule."

"We do not know that!" The leader said sharply. "We just want answers!"

"Answers I do not have." The Rhino said with a grunt. "If Tenno you be, then seek your own path. Think before you act. But in all things, Tenno _serve_. _I_ serve. Just not you." He said snidely as he stepped into the airlock and it closed behind him. "We might want to leave now."

"Yeah." Karen sounded sad and sick now. "I just… I need to contact the Lotus, tell her what happened. Then I need to… go home…"

"Where is home?" The Rhino asked as he stepped into the small craft's sole room and knelt on the floor.

"A dojo." Karen said quietly. "I am sorry about your axe."

"The only way to it was through that mob of idiots." The Rhino said stoically. "While I will miss it, I would miss my honor more if I killed them to retrieve my weapon."

"We have a full armory. Oh, you and Karl will get along just fine." Karen had a smile in her voice as she sat back in the seat to activate her com systems.

_Karl…?_ Why did that name ring oddly in the Rhino's head? Did he know that one? Or had he heard the name? He wasn't sure. He paused as Karen gasped and then started crying. "Tenno Karen?"

"Mavri is… The Lotus cannot contact him. She believes him dead." Karen spoke through tears. "That… they killed him. Why…? Why would they _kill_ him? He was trying to _help._"

"A mob is only as smart as its stupidest member." The Rhino said sadly. He had only met the Elder for a very short time, but he had liked what he had seen. "If Elder Mavri _is_ dead… there will be hell to pay."

"There already is. The coms are going nuts. Word has gone out across the system." Karen controlled herself, but rage sang in her now. "No one is to approach. The colony just lost all com access with _everyone_. The Lotus took out their coms."

"I shudder to think how many innocents will be harmed by that mob's actions." The Rhino said stoically. "But using me as a crutch? And to break with the Code? Not going to happen."

"Tenno serve." Karen bowed her head formally as the Rhino did likewise. "Tenno do not rule."

"As the First commanded, so we obey." The Rhino said formally and Karen nodded. Then he chuckled. "Most of us wouldn't have clue how to anyway. It's not as simple as parry and cut."

"No it's not." Karen agreed. "On course for home. What the hell do I tell them?"

"What can we tell them but the truth?" The Rhino sounded resigned now. "If my presence will cause problems…" 

"No one sane will try anything." Karen had a humorless grin in her voice now. "Now with Karl's dojo. Not after the upgrades we have gotten since the last few security breaches. Having a Cyberlancer and a master sniper work on things has been… eye opening." In all kinds of ways.

"A cyberlancer _and_ a master sniper?" The Rhino asked respectfully. "Your clan attracts talent."

"More like we attract _nutcases_." Karen snorted a laugh. "But then again, I am one myself, so…" She shrugged. She shook herself. "If you seek answers, we have a team of top notch mental health professionals. They specialize in mind problems, including cryo-nesia."

"The doc said it was probably permanent." The Rhino wasn't arguing, simply stating what he had heard. "Prolonged cold doing damage to the chemicals that make up memory despite what the warframe can do to regen it."

"I know." Karen grunted. "It's just… they helped me, a lot. I went through some… bad stuff and they helped a lot."

"You survived, sister." The Rhino sounded comforting now. "You are very skilled."

"Thank you." Karen sounded tired. "Sorry. It has been… a long day."

"Meditate with me, sister?" The Rhino waved to a part of the floor nearby and the Mag slid from the control chair to kneel beside him. "How long to the dojo?"

"Five hours at max." Karen replied, setting herself properly. "I will meditate for four."

"I will set mine for four and a half." The Rhino nodded as Karen looked at him. "Don't trust too blindly, sister."

"You are not evil." Karen's voice was whisper soft. "I have _seen_ evil. If you have _done_ evil, you had no choice."

"You do not know that." The Rhino stated.

"No, but I believe it." Then the Mag snorted. "Besides… The whole ship is gene locked. I trust, but not blindly." Only she could operate it until and unless she undid the lock. The Rhino chuckled.

"Good girl." The Rhino said with firm approval. Then he sank into his meditation. Karen followed moment later.

Neither of them saw a shadowy form that appeared at the back of the ship, staring at them. It wore armor that was and was _not_ a warframe. Almost an Excalibur warframe without a helmet. The dark haired human's face was sad. For a moment, it glowed gold. He bowed his head.

_Ah, my kin… It begins again…_

Then the shadowy form was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Paths**

"How's that?" The medic's voice wasn't worried, per say, but she was cautious. For that, the Tenno with no name was grateful. The Tenno of the clan that Karen called family had been… Well, upset probably was too mild a word. None of them had apparently been surprised by the news except Karen. The medics had taken his word for his situation and none had pressed.

_He_ had been the curious one. Karen's comments about searching deep held memories had intrigued him. Despite the reservations of the staff, the clan leader had simply nodded. The other Rhino hadn't said a word, but amusement had rolled from him in waves as he had seen the medics trying not to be curious. He couldn't really blame them. He was curious himself.

He found that he liked these people. These Tenno who were different from him. It had been decidedly uncomfortable when he had seen a humanoid form in what was obviously a Tenno suit of some kind step from the back of Karen's warframe and move to stand by a wall when he asked to see it done. She had spoken, reassured him and he had relaxed. Somewhat. He… couldn't do that and the docs had flatly forbade him trying. He didn't have an epidermis like Karen and the others did. His epidermis was the armor of his warframe. Which was how he remembered it being, but...

"I am good, Medic Brianna." The Rhino Prime said quietly as he lay back on the bed that the staff had been forced to fabricate to accommodate his warframe. He wouldn't have minded waiting, but the others were just as curious as he was. "I still think you should find a way to restrain me. If I lash out…"

"We will stay away until we are sure you are coherent." The other medic –Amelia- said with a snort. "We are not quite that stupid." Two different chuckles came from nearby and she spun in place to glare at the other observers. "None of that! I run a clean medical ward. Keep your silliness out of here!"

The Rhino Prime had to laugh as the black painted Banshee made a decidedly lewd gesture at the medic who blushed. The white armored Rhino just shook his head.

"Let them get it out of their system _now_." Brianna said with a long suffering sigh that was utterly ruined by the wide smile on her face. "Else they will be incorrigible."

"They are not _usually_?" The Rhino Prime slyly and the room erupted in chuckles again.

"Well… Yeah." Brianna admitted and Amelia shook her head and went back to her work. "But usually, they are a bit less… forward about it."

"I can see I am a bad influence." The recumbent Tenno said with a snort.

"Not really." Karen had a wide grin on her face now. "They are _always_ like this." She recoiled in mock fear as the Banshee raised a hand in a mock backhand gesture. Then she sobered. "You don't have to do this."

"Begging your pardon, Sister Karen…" The Rhino Prime said formally. "Yes I do. Anything more than the tiny little bits of memory I have now will be an improvement."

"I have seen… and heard… these done." Karen said softly. "…too many times." She bowed her head. "I owe you, but…" The Rhino Prime froze in place and then, after a glance at Brianna who was just as shocked, swung out of the bed and strode to where Karen was standing, ashen faced.

"Sister Karen." The Rhino Prime said formally. "You owe me _nothing_. If anything, _I_ owe _you_. You protected me while I was helpless. You stood alone while…" He broke off as Karl exclaimed.

"_Alone?_" The clan leader demanded. To her credit, Karen did not wilt as the white armored Rhino stepped to her. "Karen?"

"The others… left the pod, Karl Sensei." Karen's voice was whisper soft, but carried. The Banshee –Two- had frozen as well. "I couldn't leave kin to die or… worse."

"No. No, you couldn't." Karl's voice held rage now, but it was not directed at Karen. He waved her to the door, towards the room where her warframe stood empty. "Go." He commanded.

"Sensei… I…" Karen stammered, staring from him to the Rhino Prime and back. "I need to…"

"You are out on your feet. You need _rest_, Karen." Karl's voice turned gentle. "Go on, we have this." Now the young Tenno wilted a bit. "…and tell Aeron I want to talk to him _before_ he… 'talks' to any of the ones who were on your team." Karen actually gulped at that and then bowed formally. To him, to the Rhino Prime and then to Two who nodded. Then she left the room. Karl shook his head slowly. "That girl has no quit in her at all."

"Saw that." The golden Rhino said softly. "She is new." It wasn't a question. Karl looked at him and he shrugged. "No offense intended to her, but if it was protect me or herself… she should have taken care of _herself_ first."

"Karen is… a special case." Karl shook himself a little. "She has had some… bad experiences."

"And if you let her _kill_ herself trying to prove herself without the experience to know when to back off?" The Rhino Prime asked carefully. "Or when to run the hell _away_?"

"Oh, she knows _that_." Two's voice could have dried up an ocean. "We wouldn't let her out of the _dojo_ otherwise."

"I meant no offense." The Rhino Prime said after a moment. "She is a good sister."

"None taken." Karl reassured him. "She _is_ a good sister. And as you say, a _new_ sister. We have trained her as best we can. But if we wrap her in protections… Keep placing armor between her and the universe…" He nodded as the other Rhino inhaled in understanding.

"She will never learn." The Prime replied. "I apologize. I… I remember seeing too many half trained kids die to take it easily."

"The war took everything we had. Far too many of us died in the process." Karl agreed. "None of us remember it all. Some of us have more than others. We also have access to some fairly specialized records. But…"

"Memory is a double bitted axe. Cuts both ways." The Prime sounded resigned. "I want to know, but… at the same time, I don't. You understand?" He asked the room. All of the others nodded. "I…" He turned to where Amelia stood, but paused as she shook her head.

"You are not ready." Amelia started powering down the systems and after a moment, Brianna did likewise. "There is no hurry. No urgent call for you to endure the pain that will come from this. Settle yourself, Tenno. Meditate. If you still desire it, we will do it. But not _now_." This was the medical professional talking.

"The not-knowing hurts doc." The Prime sounded dejected, but he was not arguing. "But I know I am too conflicted right now. I will take some time to think."

"We will be here when you are ready." Amelia said with a nod and turned back to her equipment.

The white armor Rhino and the black armor banshee turned and made for the door, the Prime following them. Outside, the corridors of the dojo were clear.

"You won't need quarters in a warframe." Karl commented as they walked. "So I secluded an area of the zen garden for you."

"Appreciated." The Prime nodded. "I know I am a burden."

"It is an entirely new world you have woken in, brother." Two kept her pace even with the others. "Even the best of us take some time to acclimatize. Diving into combat just out of the pod had to be… jarring."

"It was." The Prime sighed in loss. "I am going to miss that axe, but… a weapon does not make a Tenno."

"Nope." Karl agreed. "But we can stop by the armory first. I need to talk to Aeron any- aw crap…" Two and the Prime looked up to see a Loki striding towards them. Just from his posture, the trickster Tenno was _furious_. Even the bangles on his Swindle helm were jingling from his tension. "Two, take our guest to the armory. You know what is spoke for and what isn't. Miguel should available on call if you need anything." Two nodded and turned a corner. The Prime paused but followed when she beckoned him while Karl moved to block the Loki's path. "Aeron…" Karl's voice was low and meant to soothe.

"Do you _know_ what those idiots _did_?" The Loki snapped, but the rest of what he was saying was cut off as Two hurried them into another room and the door hissed shut behind them.

"That was Aeron." The Prime said slowly.

"Karen is his adopted daughter." Two said quietly. The Prime froze and Two nodded. "He isn't as bad as he _was_… But still…" She shuddered. "He is the only person I have ever met who can match Serene in sheer _angry_. Maybe not scariness but angry"

"Serene?" The Prime inquired.

"Another sister." Two said, oddly hesitant. "She also wears a Banshee warframe. She… walked alone for a long, long time. It… changed her."

"It would." The Prime agreed and Two relaxed a little. "She okay?"

"For certain connotations of the word 'okay', yes." Two said with a shrug. "Others no. She is a mess, but she is alive, sane and mostly whole."

"_Mostly_?" The Rhino asked carefully.

"She lost her legs and the docs couldn't regrow them." Two was being blunt and the Prime nodded. The pain in her voice was heartfelt. "Radiation."

"So no prosthesis?" He asked, concerned. Radiation did… bad things when it hit warframes on occasion.

"Maybe. She is currently at a specialized hospital." Two sounded… cautiously optimistic now. "They are trying some off the wall techniques and hope to help her. But no. With the radiation damage… She can't use a warframe again."

"That is… to be regretted." The Prime bowed his head. "Good Tenno should be treasured."

"She still holds to the Code." Two's voice held mild reproof and the Prime bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Warframe or no, she is _still_ Tenno." She shook herself. "Armory. Two and guest. Guest needed armaments. Clearance?" The door clicked open, but as they entered a slightly larger chamber…

"Two?" A scared voice sounded from a corner and both Tenno turned to see a small Nyx warframe appear from where she had been crouched. "Aeron just tore out of here like he was on fire! He got a call and… bam!" She shook her head. "I forgot how scary he can be."

"What are you doing in the Armory, Kori?" The Prime went still. Something in the Banshee's tone...

"He had me cleaning parts." The Nyx –Kori- spoke slowly and carefully. "I… Two, it is still live!" She turned and the Prime inhaled as he saw a collar on her neck. A neutralization collar! "I couldn't use any of my powers even if I _wanted_ to!" The Prime stared at her and then at Two who relaxed a bit. "What the _hell_ happened?" The Nyx demanded.

"Karen was sent on a mission with a mixed group from other clans." Two's voice was flat now. "She was left alone to accomplish it. In the Void."

"_**What?**_" The Nyx could not have been faking the sheer outrage in her voice. Not a chance. "Is she…?" She took a step and paused, obviously conflicted.

"She is okay." Two sighed and relaxed fully. "Tired. But okay. This is our guest. He doesn't remember his name."

"Oh." Kori made a noise of sadness. "That sucks." She spoke as if from experience. "I am Kori." She bowed to the Prime. "Currently working on my penance for wrongs I did this clan." Two crossed her arms and Kori retreated a pace. "And I haven't been touching assembled weapons, Two! Parts! He had me cleaning parts!" She waved to a table covered in small pieces from various firearms. "There!"

"Kori…" Two said quietly.

"I have to do _something_, Two!" Kori snapped. "I am going out of my mind here! Anything! Cleaning the air filters! Shoveling sand! Feeding the _fish_! _Anything_! I can't just _sit_, Two!"

"And we _cannot_ let you loose." Two said softly. "Not after what happened." Kori slumped a bit and nodded, her entire body language abject. "We won't kill you."

"_I would prefer death!_" Kori screamed, and then recoiled. "No… I…" Two seemed at a loss and the Prime shook his head.

"Sister." The Prime said slowly. "Whatever you have done, was the damage mortal?" Kori shook her head and the Rhino nodded. "Then you have a chance to atone. Not everyone gets that chance, sister."

"I know." Kori said as she knelt, bowing her head. "I will… I will wait for Aeron to return to command me." Two froze.

"Kori. He might be gone a while." The Banshee sounded upset now. "Ric left you in our care. He has important work."

"I know." Kori said softly. "And I cannot be trusted."

"The only way to earn trust is to act trustworthy, sister Kori." The Prime said into the silence that fell. "You regret your actions. That is one step on your road to atonement. But it will a long and tortuous one."

"Who _are_ you?" Kori breathed, staring at him. "I swear I know you… from… somewhere…"

"I wish I knew." The Prime answered honestly. Kori nodded slowly and he jerked his head to the table. She rose, bowed formally to the pair and stepped to the table where she picked up a small brush. It looked… No it couldn't be! No, it wasn't his imagination! It was a toothbrush_!_ She was cleaning the tiny bits of firearms with an archaic _toothbrush_. "May you find peace on your way, Sister Kori." He intoned formally.

Kori stiffened, but then resumed her work. Two looked from one to the other and then shrugged. She led him to another door. The door opened in front of the Banshee and the Prime stopped at it, stunned. Inside lay a huge room filled to the brim with instruments of death. Rifles, pistols, swords, axes, maces, machine guns, rocket launchers… Everything and _any_thing weapon related hung on neat racks or lay on tables ready for inspection.

"I…" The Prime shook his head. "Just a skana." Two looked at him and shook her head.

"Sensei said you are to be armed properly." The Banshee's voice was quiet. "You cannot carry them around inside the dojo. No unauthorized weapons past the door to the hall. The lockers will hold them for you or send them to the docking bay if you take a ship. Step out with one and zap, you are unconscious." She warned. "But he wants you outfitted properly. We have enough."

"I'll say." The Prime said dryly as he looked around. He shook himself. "Skana, Braton and Lato?" Two didn't move and the Prime sighed. "That is all I need."

"Karl Sensei said 'properly'." Two's tone defied argument. "I do not want him angry at me."

"Okay." The Prime said sourly as he scrutinized the weapons. "Scindo…" He stepped to where a set of the battle axes hung. Some were the standard Tenno double bladed axe. Others were more massive, with a huge bell shaped mass at the bottom to counterbalance the huge spikes on the chunky blade. But one… "Where did he get _this_…?" He reached out to touch the ancient looking axe and paused, looking at Two who shrugged.

In form, it was a two handed axe with two blades. Much like a Scindo, which was why it was hanging with them most likely. But… The handle was wood, not metal. And the blades… They were long, coming to wicked points above and below the attachment to the haft as well as ornately carved. He tapped one blade with a finger and the ringing tone was solid metal. He pulled the weapon down, swung it experimentally and then slowly replaced it.

"What?" Two asked, confused. "It seemed to fit you."

"That is a relic." The Prime's voice was awed. "I am not worthy to handle such." He strode to the regular Scindo and pulled one down. He swung it experimentally and nodded. "This will do."

"The other one looked right in your hands." Two protested.

"That blade predates Orokin, Tenno Two." The Prime said sternly. Two froze and the Rhino nodded. "Using such a relic…" Now he shook his head. "Weapon were meant to be used. There is nothing glorious or heroic about things meant to end lives. But there _is_ history and that…" He nodded to the axe. "Should not end its days with its broken blades buried in some clone's stinking armor. A Scindo is more than enough."

"It looked right." Two said, but she was not arguing. Simply stating fact. The Prime shrugged and turned to other weapons. He chose a Braton and paused when he saw something that caught his eye.

"Castanas." The Prime picked up one pf the wicked throwing traps and juggled it for a moment. "You have a quite extensive collection."

"We have lot of… odd stuff coming through." Two said with a small chuckle. "We find blueprints and our Armorer makes them just to see if he can. Sometimes he makes them just to see how bad they are." The Prime chuckled at that but holstered the Castanas at his hip.

"These will do." The Prime nodded. "Now to meditate. I think… I think I want to know who I was. But…"

"But?" Two asked as she opened the door, but froze as a voice from outside spoke.

"Come on out of there, ya silly girl and bring the clan's guest." The voice was old and cantankerous. "Karen is asleep and I wanna hear what happened to that pup Mavri!" The Prime froze at the voice and then slowly walked to the door as Two slowly edged out into the room.

Outside, Kori was huddled against one wall. Obviously the door was soundproofed, because she was crying from the shudders she was showing. The cause stood at the other door, his hands on his pistols.

"You haven't changed a _bit_." The Prime said slowly. "Nikis."

The Nekros gunfighter stared at the Prime and slowly shook his head. His hands… fell from his pistols. When he spoke again, it was dumbfounded. Two jerked as she heard _awe_ in it.

"_You_?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Fear**

The Prime did not move. Kori knelt where she was, still shuddering. Two stood frozen against the wall and the pitch black Nekros who had caused this stood in the doorway, obviously not going to make the first move.

"I don't remember a lot." The Prime said softly. "But I do remember _you_, Nikis. You are memorable."

"Karl said you don't remember your name." Nikis said quietly. The Prime shook his head, but his hands did not move from where they hung by the Castanas. "It was Richard." The Prime did not move. That felt… both right and wrong. The gunfighter sighed. "Come on, _say_ something. _Do_ something, drat you."

"I am not your enemy, Nikis." The Prime said quietly. "I don't think either of us wants to _be_ the other's enemy. Especially now. I don't remember what lay between us." Nikis shook his head slowly.

"Cryo-nesia sucks." The Nekros said after a moment. "I didn't get it as bad. Part of me wishes I had." For a moment, a sad and sick old man sounded in his voice. Then it hardened. "What happened to Mavri?"

"I don't know." The Prime said quietly. "He told us to flee and not to attempt any rescues." Nikis snarled and the Prime shook his head. "Nikis…" He warned.

"No, I _ain't_ going to run in, guns blasting to cut down unarmed women and children who happen to get in my way. I know about people in the wrong place at the wrong time." Nikis snapped. "Mavri was a dumb kid when I knew him, but he grew up. They all did. But… Not many were left. You know?" His tone was sad now.

"I know." The Prime voice gentled. "What can you tell me?"

"Richard…" Nikis sounded as if her were picking his words with care now. "If you don't know… then I can't say." The Prime went still and Nikis sighed deeply. "I gave my word."

"Crap." The Prime –he couldn't quite think of himself as Richard- said with feeling. What little he remembered… Nikis didn't give his word often. When he _did_? A _planet_ would move out of its orbit before the stubborn Tenno pistoleer would budge. "Then, for whatever it is worth, I am glad you are still around, you blasphemous fart."

"Never thought I would say this." Nikis sounded amazed now. "But right back at ya, ya silly paladin." He laughed a bit sadly. "I will be around."

"Don't do anything rash, Nikis." The Prime said quietly. "If Mavri is alive, he will need help. But not foolish help."

"Teach your grandma to suck eggs, Richard." The Nekros spun, deposited his pistols in a locker that was open behind him and then vanished from the room.

For a long moment, no one moved. Then the Prime walked to where Kori lay sobbing and knelt beside her. He touched her shoulder and she jumped. She stared up at him, her armored faceplate retracted and tears were falling like rain. Two stood back, shaking her head.

"He… he hates me…" Kori sobbed.

"It's not personal, Sister Kori." The Prime said quietly. "He hates _everybody_, including himself." He laid an arm around her as she sobbed. "It's okay, sister. It's okay."

"He said I was worthless…" Kori bawled. "Stupid, worthless dross…"

"Are you?" The Prime asked. Kori bowed her head and he shook her a little. "Sister, answer the question. Are you?"

"I think so." Kori curled up tighter. "Can't… Can't do better…" She gave a squeak as the Prime rose quickly dropping her on her rump. Her squeak turned to a cry of fear as his hand went up and back and his Scindo came to his hand. He held it easily one-handed.

"If that is _all_ you believe…" The Prime ignored Two's sudden intake of breath. "If you believe that nothing can save you…that you are doomed and nothing you do _matters_…then why are you still here?" His voice was… odd. Gentle, but… like a sudden rain shower, it was everywhere. "If you truly believed you were useless, why fight? Why keep trying? Why not give up?"

"You know." Kori said weakly, but then screamed as the axe came down, slamming to the ground beside her. She shied away from it as his huge arms lifted it easily to ready position again. "What?"

"Are you just a drain? A leech? A waste?" The Prime's voice was thunderous now. "_What are you?_" His voice was not a scream. Not quite. But the sheer intensity was appalling.

"A failure." Kori bent her head as if to invite the deathblow. Instead, the _flat_ of one of the blades slapped her upside the head. "What? Ow!"

"Try again." The Prime sounded quiet and contemplative now, but his axe was up again. "Depression lies, sister." Kori stared at him, eyes wide. "Fight it."

"I don't understand." Kori nearly begged. "What?"

"Your guilt is telling you one thing." The Prime said quietly. "Your heart another. Which way will you go, sister?" Kori stared at him, eyes wide, then down at herself. The axe returned to its place on the Prime's back and he sidled closer beside her. "Sister… You are not alone. You do not face this battle alone." Two had been frozen in place while the tableau played out, now she knelt on Kori's other side. "Any Tenno can err. Any Tenno can fail. Any can be misled." He reached out and his hand was gentle, but irresistible as he turned her crying face to look at him. "Nikis was trying to _help_ you, sister Kori. His way. He _kicks_ people until they get better or fall apart completely. It works sometimes." His tone spoke volumes of how he felt about the Nekros' methods.

"It hurts." Kori said weakly. "Why does it hurt so bad? I… I was getting better…"

"I don't know what happened to you, sister." The Prime said quietly. "But you are strong to have survived your ordeals. Whatever you did to earn this clan's wrath, you survived. It is time to move past your grief and fear, sister. Time to move on."

"I can't." Kori pleaded. She did not move, but both others turned their eyes as the door hissed open. Another warframe stood there. Not one the Prime had seen before. A Vauban. He nodded to the Prime, an odd gesture. Stylized and formal. Archaic and… right.

"Oh Kori…" The sadness in the male Tenno's voice was palpable.

"Ric…" Kori keened and only the Prime's grip on her shoulders kept her off the floor. "I can't… I tried… I can't… I can't do this. I tried so hard. I am not good enough."

"Kori." The Vauban went to his knees in front of the sobbing Nyx and reached out to hold her. The Prime released her when the Vauban had a good grip. "The _only_ one who thinks that is _you_." The Prime glanced at the Vauban and then back to the Nyx. Kori shook her head savagely and the Vauban sighed. "We will be waiting for you in the garden, Kori. Brianna and I."

"But… I…" Kori gave a squeak as the Vauban embraced her. Then he rose and, quick as thought, was gone. "I don't understand." She wailed. Then she made a sound somewhere between a squeak and a muffled scream as the Prime rapped her shoulder and rose. He walked to a locker, stowed his weapons and then moved to stand in front of her. Then he bent down and gathered her up as easily as if the warframe clad Tenno were a child! "No…"

"You need help, sister. It's not weakness to need assistance against overwhelming enemies. And depression _is_ an overwhelming enemy." The Prime said gently as he held her gently but firmly despite her struggles. "The garden?"

Two rose silently and led the way into the hall. The Rhino Prime moved easily despite his burden, Kori sputtering protests that both ignored. The halls were empty, eerily so. Kori's struggles became stronger as they walked, but the Rhino held her easily. Finally, Two led them through a hatch into an open sand garden where two forms waited. Only a stone lantern marred the simple perfection of the sand as it lay in tiny dunes all around the room. Medic Brianna knelt on the sand by the lantern, clad in an archaic looking silver gown. Tenno Ric stood near her, his posture still.

"The Order thanks you." Ric said formally to the Prime. "Our sister needs help."

"Indeed she does." The Prime agreed as he set Kori down on her feet. She immediately tried to run, but Two had shut and locked the door. The black Banshee leaned against the control panel, blocking access. Kori fled to the far corner of the room, panting with fear and anger. "Depression is no easy foe, sir knight." Where had _that_ come from?

"Indeed. The demons within the psyche cheat and lie and connive to sap the will of even the strongest of souls." Ric agreed, his eyes on Kori who flinched under his scrutiny. "Lady Kori, stand easy. No harm will come to you this day."

"Ric… I can't…" Kori shook herself. "I can't do this. I can't. I have tried and tried and tried. I can't _be_ this. I thought I could. I was _wrong_!"

"That is not for _you_ to judge, sister." Ric's voice turned stern. "Or do you usurp powers that are not yours by right?"

"I…" Kori jerked and retreated a step, only to collide with the wall and freeze again. "No… I…" She started to cry again. "I don't know…"

"Sir Knight…" The Prime had no idea where these words were coming from. "May I be of assistance?"

"You have _already_ been of assistance, Brother." Ric said with a nod. "Nikis meant well, but his methods are brutal." He waved permission.

"No less brutal than life at times." The Prime said sadly. "Sister Kori…" He took a step towards the sobbing Nyx. "What is happening is not your fault. Your mind is tricking you." His voice turned deep and solemn. And… something else. "Be calm… Be still…" Kori stared at him, eyes wide. A long rattling breath escaped her mouth and then… she went still. "By the Code, I see…" His voice soothed her and she relaxed slowly. "By my oath… I act." He took another step and somehow was at the frozen Nyx's side. A hand on her arm and she was eased down to kneel. The Rhino knelt before her. "For my kin, I serve. Easy, sister."

"You…" Kori stared up at the towering form. "I know you… I…think." A single tear fell. "It's so… gray… I can't… feel…"

"Yes, you can." The Prime's voice was melodic and soothing. "It is a wall. A wall of _evil_ in your mind. You created it, you _alone_ can pass it. You can see the truth, sister. All you have to do is _look_." The final word resonated oddly. Two, Ric and Brianna were all staring at him now, Brianna's mouth was hanging open as Kori shuddered a moment and then relaxed more fully.

"I… see…" Kori took a deep breath and then another. "I… Oh my god…" She started to cry again. "I…" Then, like a switch had been thrown, her tears stopped and her eyes cleared. She stared up at the Rhino who was kneeling before her with wide eyes. "Master… I…"

"No Kori." The Rhino said gently. "I am no Master. Just a traveler. A seeker of knowledge. A guide at times, but no more. No grand titles for me."

"But…" Kori shook her head as if bothered by a fly. "This is… I was smothering in gray. Your voice came and I…"

"Kori." The Prime's words were stern now. "I calmed you. That is _all_ I did. You did the rest _yourself_. You saw your depression's lies for what they are. Lies." He patted her arm and rose. "Even Tenno cannot fight all foes alone, sister. Especially when those foes come from within their own minds." The Rhino Prime moved to the door as Brianna and Ric moved to stand beside Kori who was staring at him, obviously trying to understand. "Be well, Sister Kori."

Ric and Brianna were kneeling beside Kori now as the Nyx slowly bowed her head. Two looked at the Prime and shook her head, but hit the controls and lad the way out of the room. Neither spoke as she led him into another Zen garden space. This one was a water based garden. A walkway that looked like wood ran over the water that hung with lilies and other old Earth plants. A central platform was larger, anchored to an island around which small Koi fish swam. Two led him to the platform and knelt. The Prime paused.

"May I meditate with you, brother?" Two asked softly.

"I did not intend to interfere with Sister Kori's rehabilitation." The Prime said as he knelt on the platform across from the Banshee. Synchronicity aided in focus. "I don't know where that came from." He said quietly.

"She needed help." Two sounded cautious. The Prime looked at her and she shrugged a little. "You did help."

"So did _Nikis_ in his own way." The Prime retorted. "He pushed her into the breakdown she fought her way past with my assistance."

"You did help.' Two pressed gently. "She is better."

"Perhaps." The Rhino sounded cautiously hopeful. "But for now? I need to settle myself. Think about what I want and why. And maybe figure out how I knew that Tenno was a knight." Two did not react and the Prime snorted. "I don't know him. I don't have a clue who he is. Just the name, Ric. Not anyone I remember. But somehow, I know he is a knight."

"So are you." Two said softly. The Prime went still and Two shook her head. "Not the same way. His Order is small and all accounted for. But that was a knightly act. Helping Kori like that."

"I don't know why I did that, Sister." The Prime retorted. "For all I know, this is some kind of long buried fantasy of mine. To save damsels in distress." Two burst out laughing at that and he chuckled. "Doubt it, but maybe. I remember Nikis and he knew me. But… he gave his word not to speak of it. He won't break it. Come hell or high water, sundering or _supernova_, _he_ won't break his word."

"You knew him well." Two agreed. "He taught many. Were you a student?" The Prime thought about that for a moment and then shook his head.

"I don't think so." The Rhino sounded perplexed though. "But… It kind of feels right." He mused. "Not _his_ student. But… _a_ student?" He asked nobody.

"Well, you have already said you do not believe yourself the First Rhino." Two said with a nod. "So, take it from there."

"No, there were others who bore Rhino warframes." The Prime said quickly.

"_Bore?_" Two pounced on the word. "Not 'wore'?"

"Bore." The Prime said after a moment. "As in a burden. Which it is."

"Oh yes." Two agreed. "With great power comes great responsibility." She paused as the Prime stared at her and then laughed. "What?"

"I remember that as a quote from a comic book." The Prime managed to get out through his laughs.

"A _what_?" Two demanded, deeply confused.

"Ah…" The Prime paused in his mirth. Memory came and he plowed into it. "I think… Yeah… Ancient printed media. Small captioned pictures of characters doing things were called comics. A 'comic book' was a collection of such things put together in a book format, usually small and cheaply printed to make them easy to sell. They came in all kinds. Mystery stories, comedy stories, documentary stories, horror stories, and superhero stories among others."

"_Super_… hero?" Two asked carefully.

"Yeah." The Prime sounded uncomfortable now. "Hey, I was a _kid!_" He defended himself, but Two just shook her head.

"I am honestly curious now." Two tilted her head. "What made a hero _super_?"

"Ah… Geez, hard question." The Rhino said with a snorted laugh. "Um, from what I remember… The characters possessed extraordinary talents, supernatural phenomena, or superhuman powers and were usually dedicated to protecting the public." He paused and then chuckled as Two did. "Yeah, kind of like some Tenno."

"Some, not all." Two's voice had turned darker. "Anyway… That quote?"

"Yeah." The Prime shook himself. "Can't remember if it was Super-Spider or Captain Spider who said it, but he had the quote 'With great power comes great responsibility.' The basic gist was that the character, whichever it was, believed that if a person had superhuman abilities they had a _duty_ to act _rightly_ with them." Two inhaled sharply and the Prime nodded. "You can see the appeal for some of us."

"And that character faced others who felt differently doing what he did. Protecting." It wasn't a question.

"Oh, _lots_." The Prime said with a snort. "I remember a _dozen_ entertainment holos made about that character. Most were kid's shows, but a few had deeper connotations." He shook his head, the memories faded. "Drat. Lost the thread of memory."

"Meditation should help." Two said with a nod. "But…before we start… Thank you. For helping Kori. She is a mess. And she messed up. But it wasn't entirely her fault."

"It never is, sister." The Prime set himself and took a deep breath. "It never is."

Neither the two now relaxing Tenno nor the dojo's impressive security systems noticed the shadowy form that materialized against one wall to stare at the odd pair for a moment.

The human woman was insubstantial. Her face was stricken as she reached out. For which? It couldn't be said. But then, her face contorted in apparent fear and she was gone. The plants where she had been… had moved. A golden mist wafted over the area and then every vestige of her presence faded. Then the mist vanished as if it too had never been.


	5. Chapter 5

**Unable**

"We have to do _something_!" The young human named Cecelia was all but jumping up and down in place.

When the Prime had woken refreshed from his meditations, Two had told him about this assembly. The whole clan was meeting. The Rhino Prime had wanted to demur, but since he and Karen were the only witnesses to what had happened, his presence had pretty much been a forgone conclusion. Kori had made a beeline to his side as soon as he had arrived and not left. There was something about her. Something… unsettling. She hadn't said anything wrong or _done_ anything wrong, and she might just have been fleeing the pitch black Nekros who stood on the far side of the chamber. _Everyone_ gave Nikis space. But there was something. Medic Brianna was watching her carefully and when the Prime glanced at her, the medic gave a small nod. She saw it too.

"Cecelia." Karl stood in the center of the room, immaculate in his own Rhino warframe. "What _can_ we do?" The girl stopped and stared at him. "_Invade_ the _colony_?"

"I…" The girl swallowed hard and then slumped in place. Ric laid a hand on her arm and she withdrew to where he stood, huddling close to him. "No." She sounded so miserable that the Prime's heart went out to her.

Brianna, Ric and Cecelia made a small clump near one wall. An Excalibur Prime and a Trinity that the Rhino Prime had not met yet stood by the door. Two stood with Amelia, the human doctor's face ashen. A Frost Prime stood, just a little apart from the others. This had to be Olim, the Cyberlancer. Karen stood with the Volt from before who hadn't said a word, just watched with an unnerving intensity. An older human stood by them, his face lined with years and worry, but his frame unbent. A Saryn, a Nova and a Frost stood just a little to one side. Was it his imagination that they seemed a little excluded?

Nikis stood by a dark haired human girl. A female Tenno in an odd looking medical tunic stood with them. He had seen her looking at Kori as well. So whatever was wrong with Kori wasn't just his imagination. Had he done something? He didn't think so, but he didn't know. Later. For now…

"Tenno do not fight Tenno." The voice sounded odd to the Prime's ears, and as all eyes in the room found him, he realized _he_ had spoken. "We have enough enemies." He said, trying for calm.

"True." Karl agreed. "But Cecelia is also right." The girl perked up a bit and Karl nodded to her. "We have to do _something_. But _what_? None of us have any idea. None of us have ever encountered such things. Unless…" He paused. "Nikis?"

"I have seen a few revolutions." The ancient gunfighter said slowly. "Even the bloodless ones ain't pretty. Mavri will have done whatever he could to keep the peace, but…" He hawked and spat. "Some people just ain't gonna be satisfied. Give them a millimeter and they think they can take the whole planet." The faces that could be seen fell and the Tenno in warframes all showed tension in body language. Nikis held up a hand. "The one thing that I _do_ remember is that once blood has been shed, there is no going back. No making anything right without violence. We don't know if Mavri is dead. Karen and Richard here say the Lotus told them that she couldn't contact him." The Prime shook his head and Nikis paused. "Huh?"

"I didn't hear the Lotus say that." The Prime clarified. "I was preparing for meditation." To her credit, Karen did not retreat as all the eyes in the room landed on _her_.

"I downloaded what I had seen and heard." Karen said quietly. "The Lotus sounded…distant and when she came back, she said she could not contact Mavri. She could not even detect him. I asked her what could cause that and she… didn't want to answer me. I pressed and she said that only deep unconsciousness –like a coma- or death would do that." She slumped a bit. "I didn't want to leave him." The old human beside her laid a hand on her shoulder. She straightened and nodded to Karl. "We stand ready." There was more to that innocuous sounding phrase. A _lot more_ from how the others in the room reacted, shifting as if worried.

"Let's hope you are not needed." Karl said quietly and Karen nodded, her eyes flicking around to land on the Prime and then away. He took a deep breath and then spoke. "Okay. I have asked the Lotus to notify us if anything changes. The colony has been marked 'off limits' until further notice. That includes _you__,_ Nikis." Karl said mildly. The Nekros snarled and Karl sighed. "Nikis…"

"I know I would escalate things, dimwit." The scorn in the Nekros' tone could have cut steel. "But we _could_ use someone monitoring the situation closer."

"And you are volunteering out of the goodness of your heart." Karl said dryly. "_Right_."

"No." Nikis admitted. "I am doing it so I will be close if needed. Besides, it would get me out of here. And…" He glanced at Kori who did not move. "All this nobleness is making my _teeth_ ache." He complained, looking pointedly at the Prime, who ignored him. He turned and left the room without another word. The tension level dropped significantly as soon as the hatch shut behind him.

"Not much else we can do for now." Karl's voice echoed in the silence that had fallen. "Keep running missions, keep fighting. It is what we do." A murmur of assent went around the room at that. The Saryn raised a hand slightly and Karl nodded to her. "Yes, Mori?"

"If I recall correctly, Elders have specific requirements." The female Tenno said slowly. The Prime looked at her. She didn't _know_? Odd. But Karl nodded and she continued with more assurance. "They have to be Warriors who are willing to serve in an unusual way. To learn to compromise instead of drawing weapons."

"The Way of the Elder is not easy." Karl agreed. "I doubt I would be able to do it."

"We may know of a possibility." Mori said softly. Karl looked at her. "If it is needed."

"Who?" The Excalibur Prime asked when Karl did not. The Trinity at his side tensed as the Saryn looked at her.

"You cannot be _serious_." The Trinity –someone had said her name was Alicia- did not quite exclaim, but it was close. "_Raven?_"

"Your sister is a trained politician as well as a Warrior." Mori was stating this as facts, striving to be emotionless. "It is something to consider." She said as Alicia hissed.

"True." Karl's calm word cut through Alicia's half formed protest like a sword. "Nothing for now." He commanded. "When next we get the chance, we will ask her if she is interested. But then… she would have to be vetted by the others, examined and tested."

"Just a thought." Mori said with a shrug. "We don't even know if Mavri is dead."

"Dead or incapacitated, either way, we will need to plan for the future." Karl mused. "Sooner or later, that colony will have to be dealt with. Order restored. But for now, we watch and wait."

"I hate waiting." Alicia's words were mostly under her breath. The Prime chuckled with others at her sour tone.

"I never would have guessed." Karl's dry wit had more people chuckling. Even Alicia snorted. "Anyway, we have missions. Will, Alicia, Aeron, Karen… That Assassination run." The four named Tenno nodded and left. "Olim, Mori, Two…yours is the Capture." The Frost Prime, Saryn and Banshee all nodded and left as well. "Saun, Lilly, help that team hitting the Grineer Galleon." The Nova and Frost nodded and left as well. "Brianna, Amelia?"

"Are you ready to try again?" Brianna asked, still watching Kori who hadn't moved.

"Kori needs help more than I do." The Prime said quietly. Kori gave a squeak and went still as he laid a hand on her arm. "Did I hurt her?"

"I…" Kori gave a gulp but did not move as Brianna and Ric moved to stand beside her.

"No." Ric said quietly as he took Kori's other arm. "She feels she owes you." The Prime shook his head and Ric shrugged. "Her feelings, not mine. I agree, but… not quite as strongly as she does."

"Ric!" Kori protested, but did not try to draw away.

"Kori, you are being irrational." Brianna said calmly. "We know it. You know it. Calm down." She said quietly.

"I was scared of Nikis." Kori sounded sour now. "Can you blame me?"

"Everyone _sane_ is scared of Nikis, Kori." Karl said mildly from where he stood. The woman in the medical garb was walking towards Kori as well. The other girl had vanished. "I am pretty sure he scares him_self_. It is what he is. What he does. He uses fear as his most powerful weapon."

"I know." Kori agreed. She looked up into the faceplate of the Prime and nodded. "You helped me. Perhaps I am being irrational. Perhaps I am losing my mind again. But I wish to swear to you." The Prime recoiled away from her.

"No!" He snapped. All eyes went to him as the huge Rhino Prime literally stumbled away from the much smaller Nyx. "Sister Kori, no. I am not a Master. I helped you and I am glad I did. But… There is something wrong." She stared at him, her posture going limp and he shook his head. "Sister, _think_! Are you _free_ to take service with me?" Kori hissed and stared wildly from him to Ric and back. "No." He said quietly, regaining his balance. "Your oath is to another. Do not trample on one oath out of a need to repay that which was given freely." He slumped a bit. "I have hurt you."

"I…" Kori swallowed hard and shook her head. "No, I feel… I…"

"Sister Kori, I did something to you." The Rhino Prime said quietly. "I don't know what. You were hysterical and you needed the help, so it was a good thing to do. But… I don't know what I did."

"You got past her depression." Brianna said with a nod as Amelia and the other medical person came close. "You got _her_ past her depression. It was very well done."

"I had worried that I had taken control of you somehow, Sister Kori." Kori inhaled in shock at the Rhino Prime's words. The others went still. "I don't think I did. But I don't _know_. And until I do… Sister, you are better off far away from me."

"No!" Kori shook off the hands that held her and stepped towards the Rhino Prime, only for him to retreat a step. "It isn't like that."

"We don't know that, Sister Kori." The Rhino Prime said quietly, bending down to kneel against the wall.

"I do." Kori sank to her knees as well. "You forget, I am what I am. I have lost a lot of who and what I was. But I do know the feeling of others taking control from me." Brianna gave a small cry and tears were falling, but neither the Nyx nor the Rhino Prime looked at them. "You did not take control from me." Her voice was quiet. "You allowed me to see when I could not. You showed me the way out of the gray fear that pervaded my mind."

"Be that as it may, I cannot take your oath, Sister Kori." The Prime said, striving for calm. "You are sworn to another."

"She is sworn to my Order." Ric corrected him carefully and shrugged as the Prime glanced at him. "Not to me. If she wishes and you concur, she is within her rights."

"I cannot concur." The Rhino said as Kori stared at him, mournful form her body language. "I don't know who I am. I would not be a good Master." Those words… sang in him for a moment and he paused. Something felt… right about those words. "I am sorry, Sister Kori. I cannot accept your oath."

"I understand." Kori said after a moment. "I do not agree. And… Until you leave this dojo, I would… aid you here."

"Sister Kori…" The Rhino Prime complained, looking at Karl who stood like a white statue. "Clan Leader Karl?"

"Kori wronged the clan." Karl said quietly. "Very badly. She used her powers both on another member of the clan and on beings under our protection." The Rhino Prime winced at that. No wonder she was being punished. "No one was killed, but the psychological trauma is slow to fade." Kori bowed her head, silent. "That said, she has complied with every restriction. Done every punishment. She has never complained nor has she quit. Until she was accosted by Nikis, we were cautiously optimistic about her recovery." Karl's head slowly shook. "Her relapse is our responsibility."

"No!" Kori jerked, staring at the white armored Rhino. "No… I…"

"Kori." The clan leader's voice was gentle now. "We cannot take you out of your warframe. There was too much damage." The Prime looked from the other Rhino to the Nyx and back. "You need help, sister."

"I am scared." The Nyx admitted. "I hate the feeling. It's wrong. But I am scared." The Prime bowed his head and then rose. "Wha-?" She asked as he stepped close to her.

"I cannot take you oath, sister Kori." The Prime said gently. "But I know fear all too well." He knelt before her, within reach. "Without fear, courage cannot exist. You can pass beyond your fear. If you wish it."

"The normal mantras don't help." Kori begged.

"I don't know what I did." He took her hands in his own and held them as he shook. The three medics stepped close, scanners in hand. "I don't know what I did." He repeated to them.

"You punched through Kori's depression." Brianna said as she knelt down beside Kori, her arm circling the now crying Nyx's shoulders. "You got through to her. That was a good thing. The fear…" She paused. "This is odd."

"What?" Amelia and the other medic had scanners out and going as Brianna scrutinized her scanners.

"Her theta waves are all off." Brianna said, confused. "That shouldn't _be_. Easy Kori." She hugged the crying Nyx as she worked her scanner. "This isn't… Amelia…? Iriana?" She asked, concerned.

"Kori." The medic that the Prime did not know spoke. This had to be Iriana. "What do you feel? Right now?"

"Scared, Healer Iriana." Kori said weakly. "Cold. Dark and…cold…" The three medics shared a glance that the Prime could not identify but then the one called Iriana made a hand gesture he knew. 'Hold her'.

The Prime gently tightened his grip and the Nyx did not react. Amelia produced a device that hummed as she laid it against Kori's head and the results were dramatic. Kori screamed and tried to jerk out of the Prime's grip, but there was no way she could. Brianna hung into her shoulders for dear life as the Nyx bucked and twisted. Iriana pulled a stunner from a pocket and slapped it against Kori's helmet, but the warframe clad Tenno seemed not to notice!

"What the _hell_?" The Prime spoke for everyone as Kori tried to break loose. She seemed to be acting totally on instinct. "Doc!"

"Up the power, Iriana!" Amelia snapped, grabbing hold of the Nyx's shoulders with Brianna. "We have to put her out before she hurts herself!"

Iriana's face was set in a grim line as she turned a control and her stunner glowed with energy before she applied it. Kori gave a shrill scream that sounded nothing like her own voice and collapsed in a heap. The Prime laid her down gently with the help for the two doctors. He noted that both Karl and Ric had been ready to jump in if needed. He made sure the Nyx was lying comfortably on the floor before rising and stepping to where the other males stood.

"She was…" The Prime shook himself. "That wasn't her, was it?"

"I don't know." Karl said softly. "I don't think so."

"Damn." The Prime cursed softly. "Did _I_ do that to her? Hurt her so badly that her _mind_ fractured?"

"It wasn't you." Ric shook his head. "She was fine last night. Very emotional, but… other than that, fine. That wasn't her." The Vauban agreed. "Look, we checked her over completely before we put her to bed. All _you_ did was calm her down. You showed her the truth, she accepted it. That is _all_ you did. You did _not_ take control. You did not _hurt_ her. Brianna looked very carefully."

"Ric is right." Iriana had stepped away from where Amelia and Brianna were tending the still Nyx now. "I looked over what her scans were yesterday morning and what they were this morning. You didn't hurt her." The Prime shook his head and Iriana's tone hardened. "Trust me. If you _had_ hurt her, you and I would be having words right now." He bowed his head, even with limited memory, he knew he would not win an argument with this Healer.

"Then what happened?" The Prime demanded. "That… That didn't seem like the Tenno I met yesterday. She acted… off."

"We all saw it. The difference." Iriana agreed. "It's nothing…blatant. But it is there. And until I saw the theta waves, I couldn't be sure of what it was. I haven't seen that for a while. Not since the mess with Serene and Two. A cognitive dissonance."

"A cognitive dissonance?" The Prime snapped, then chuckled and continued only half in jest. "She is _possessed_?" Iriana… did not smile.

"Yes."


	6. Chapter 6

**Broken Alliances**

He knelt silent in the garden. Things had been… hectic. The docs couldn't quite figure out what was going on with Kori. They _had_ ruled out that another intelligence was using Kori's body. That was good. Just the thought made the Prime shudder. He couldn't remember much about the War with the Sentients, but the feelings were clear. The thought of humans being enslaved and forced to fight –or worse- was horrifying. He had been given the run of the dojo, minus really sensitive places like the com room and the docks. That made sense. The com room was one of the few places from which the location of the dojo could be broadcast and the docks, well… that was where the ships were, so that made sense too. He had worked out, practiced with both firearms and swords and now was meditating again.

The Tenno known as Kori bothered him. Something about her _really_ bothered him. But he wasn't sure why. She was coherent now that the docs had isolated whatever the oddness in her brain had been. All of the test they had done showed no malignant intelligences, indeed, no intelligences at all. It was as if she had been hit by a super charge of fear. Which made no sense whatsoever. How she was affected was easy, she could not leave her warframe. If she did, she would die. Brianna had tearfully explained what had happened, but the Prime did not blame her. Being caught with no good choices was a fact of life. So… whatever had hit Kori had come through the neural feeds. But…

The Prime jerked in place. Kori had been upset, but not afraid before Nikis had come. Had the Nekros done something? If so, why? It didn't make any-

Without warning, he was kneeling on grass. A single tree rose up beside him and he relaxed. He knew this place. He wasn't sure how he did, but he did. The grass and tree were tinged with lines that moved. Lines of golden code. A virtual world.

"You can come out." The Prime said easily. "I know this is virtual."

"You always were sharp eyed, Richard." A voice that was tantalizingly familiar sounded and a form appeared nearby. A human male, wearing armor that was almost a warframe. The Prime inhaled as he recognized the Glaive held ready in the Tenno's hand. The _First_ Tenno's hand.

"Am I your enemy, Hayden Tenno?" The Prime asked softly, not moving. "I don't remember."

"No." The First Tenno did not relax though. "But trouble follows you. Everywhere you try to leave it behind, it follows." The Prime tensed and Hayden sighed. "You do not cause it, but it follows you. She cannot let you go and cannot move on."

"_She?_" The Prime asked carefully. "Who?"

"Belina. Your wife." The First Tenno said sadly. The Prime reeled as if punched in the gut and Hayden sighed. "It is as much my fault as anyone's, Richard. I should have insisted she join us. I didn't. I didn't want to press her. So I didn't. Until it was too late."

"I don't understand." The Prime said softly. "I… _Am_ I the First Rhino?"

"You _were_." Hayden said softly. "But now you are not."

"That makes no _sense_." The Prime demanded. "How can I both _be_ the First Rhino and _not_?"

"You gave up the title when you split from us, Richard." Hayden said softly. "Your arguments were clear and concise. We debated for two weeks, but in the end, we agreed. You ceased to be Rhino and became Richard again." The Prime shook his head, stunned. "Another took your place and the name. He served and died with honor."

"I am still Tenno…" Was he begging?

"Nothing can change that but you, Richard." Hayden said with a smile. "And you are a little stubborn, just like the rest of us." The Prime surprised himself with a chuckle. "That stubbornness is about to be tested like never before."

"I don't know where I heard that tone last." Richard said quietly. "But I don't like it." But then he paused. The image in front of him was wavering. Not much, just a little. But enough.

"What?" Hayden –or what looked like Hayden- asked slowly as the Prime stood up.

"Who _are_ you?" The Prime demanded, a golden Scindo axe appearing in his hand. "You are _not_ Hayden Tenno."

"Are you so sure...?" The fake Hayden's voice trailed off in a shriek of pain as something came sizzling in from the side and tore right through the form in front of the Rhino. _Another_ Glaive! It arced, guided. The Rhino had his axe up in a perfect block and the flying Glaive sparked off it, returning to the hand of the form that appeared out of nowhere. _Another_ Hayden Tenno, but this one was more solid.

"Considering that Hayden Tenno just _arrived_?" The Rhino Prime said dryly. "Yeah. You ain't him." The cut in half body vanished form the virtual world. The real Hayden Tenno drew back to throw again, but paused as the Prime threw down his axe. He raised his chin to the First Tenno and spoke evenly. "Do it."

"How did you know she was lying?" The Glaive did not move from half drawn back to throw. It seemed… eager.

"I didn't." The Prime admitted. "But the disguise wasn't perfect. Bad code around the edges."

"I see." The First Tenno's voice was calm, but about as warm as an ice cube. "Why shouldn't I kill you?"

"Maybe you should. I don't know what I did to earn your wrath." The Rhino Prime said quietly. "Did I kill kin?"

"No." Hayden seemed to pause for a moment. "You really do not remember?"

"No." The Prime said quietly. "I know I am not the First Rhino. That was all lies, wasn't it?" The First Tenno just looked at him. The Prime sighed. "You owe me nothing except a gory death from your reaction. So… Whatever I did was bad."

"From our point of view, yes." Hayden replied. "From yours, it was needed. Opposing viewpoints."

"Can you tell me _what_ I did?" The Prime begged, falling to his knees. "Before you carry out the punishment?"

"No." Hayden's voice turned sad. "Some secrets must be kept." The Prime nodded and bowed his head, but…

"_Stop!_" A familiar voice screamed from nearby and arms surrounded the Rhino. "Kill him and strike me down too!" Kori!

"Sister Kori." Dreadful force sang in Hayden's voice. "Move." The intensity of the command tore through the code around the Rhino, the grass fading into shards of golden code.

"Is he evil?" Kori demanded, hugging the stunned Rhino tighter.

"No." Hayden said sadly. "And that makes this worse. Sister, if I must, I _will _strike you down as well. Do not doubt that. He must die. Here. Now. Or darkness and death will follow. They always _do."_

"If he is not evil, then it is _wrong_!" Kori declared, placing herself between Hayden and the Rhino for all the good that would do. The Glaive could and would fly around her. "I have seen too much wrong, _done_ too much wrong! Please! Don't!"

"Sister." The Prime begged Kori, trying to extricate himself from her. "Stand away. Whatever must happen, must happen. I can accept that. Do not make me the cause of _your_ death as well."

"And you submit to it blindly?" Kori snapped. "At his say so? Without any information but his saying you need to die?"

"Kori." The Prime growled at her and she froze. "He is the _First_. Show respect."

"_Not without knowing why!_" Kori screamed. "_I will not follow blindly! I will not allow you to die alone and forgotten without at least knowing __why__!_"

"He will not be forgotten." Hayden hadn't moved at all. "Sister, be wary of your feelings. He helped you, but…"

"This is not about him helping me!" Kori actually interrupted him. Hayden stared at her, the Rhino did as well. "This is about knowing the difference between right and wrong. I can't see the difference here, First One! I can't."

"You don't have all the information, sister Kori." Hayden agreed. "And you are not going to get it. _Nyx_!" He snapped and another form appeared nearby. The Nyx warframe had gold trim in places and she sighed as she took in the scene. "Can you explain to our sister?"

"Hayden." The Nyx Prime –the First Nyx- said calmly. "You wanted Tenno to be able to choose. She has chosen. Not what we _wish_, but who are _we_ to gainsay her choice?" Now her voice turned stern. "And I will _not_ take control of her to move her just so you can play _executioner_ again." Steel would have bent under her tone.

"That is not what I am _asking_." Hayden said with a groan. "We _cannot_ explain."

"And she _cannot_ accept her friend's death _without_ an explanation." Nyx retorted evenly. "What do you _want_, Hayden?" She asked sourly and then shook her head. She spoke to the Rhino. "End this split. Only you _can_."

"What did I _do?_" The Rhino Prime begged, horrified. "To drive the _First_ against one _another_…? Oh my _god_…" He shoved Kori away, but she clung harder. "Kori!"

"It wasn't just you." Nyx said sadly.

"_Nyx_!" Hayden snapped.

"We need to rethink this, Hayden." Nyx said quietly, not moving. "We _all_ agreed. _Then._ Things have changed. We need to talk."

"Have they?" Hayden asked, but then sighed. "All right, things have changed." He agreed sourly. He did _not_ lower the Glaive. "But there is going to be hell to pay when Eliza finds out."

"Who?" The Prime asked, but then shook his head. "No. No more death. No more dying on account of me." He shook himself and rose, Kori clinging to his neck like a limpet. He reached down and took hold of her warframe by the back of the neck and bodily yanked her from him, throwing her aside. "Throw. End this."

"No!" Kori screamed. But… Hayden didn't. Nyx actually recoiled, but not from Kori's impassioned cries.

"You would willingly _die_..." Hayden sounded stunned. "To stop it?"

"Whatever I did must have been horrible beyond belief." The Prime said coldly. "If my death _ends_ it, then _do_ it! Tenno _serve_! We do _not_ rule!"

"You didn't rule." Nyx sounded as if she were about to cry. "They… I… Hayden…" She begged. "Please."

"So be it." Hayden and Nyx both vanished, leaving Kori and the Prime to stare where they had been. Then-

He woke, aware of the small warframe clad form kneeling beside him. The Nyx jerked and shivered a bit. "That was _dumb_, Kori." He complained.

"I don't care what you did." Kori said evenly. "You are not evil."

"You don't know that." The Prime snapped. "_I_ don't know that! I might have been! I don't _remember_!"

"The docs can help you." Kori said quickly. "They can."

"Maybe they _can_." The Prime said with a sigh. "_Should_ they?"

"What?" Kori demanded.

"Look, Kori…" The Prime said sadly. "Hayden Tenno was the _First_. He wasn't infallible, but he was damn smart. What did I do to make him seek my death, Kori?" He demanded. "What did that other being want with me? The one who appeared as…" He paused and stared at Kori who did not move. "What are you doing out of Medical?" He asked, sudden worry surfacing.

"I needed to talk to you." Kori said slowly. "You are not to blame for what happened."

"Kori…" The Prime did not move, indeed, he was barely breathing. "What have you done?"

"Nothing." Kori said sharply. "They left me to sleep. I couldn't."

"Kori." The Prime's tone turned horrified. "They wouldn't have left you alone. What? Have? You? Done?"

"Amelia was going to knock me out." Kori said with a wince. "I took the stunner and used it on her."

"You _what?_" The Prime demanded, jumping to his feet. Kori recoiled, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "Come."

"I needed to talk to you!" Kori snapped but did not resist. Wise of her as irritated as the Rhino Prime was.

"Kori, if you attacked a member of this clan, they will _never_ let you go!" The Prime retorted. "And if I am the cause of more bloodshed…" He gulped. "I was. I was the _cause_ of bloodshed. _Tenno_ fighting _Tenno_." Kori went still but he pulled her along. "I can't… remember, but… the feelings… I feel… horror. Not again!" He declared. "Not _again_!"

"Amelia wasn't acting right." Kori said as they made their way towards the door. "She said I needed 'to be put out of the way'. She had a needle as well as the stunner. That isn't like her."

"Kori, if you have a problem with the clan's _medic_, you need to take it to the clan _leader_." The Prime said with dreadful force. "Not knock people _out_. That is assault at the very least."

"Look, I know it was a bad idea." Kori retorted. "But she came at me from behind! In the dark! What was I supposed to do?"

"What?" the Prime paused, his hand on the door control.

"I was meditating." Kori's voice was small. "Trying to get past the infatuation." The Prime went still and she nodded. "Yes, I am infatuated. No, it won't last. She came in. She didn't greet me. She always greets me. She… she likes me. Or she did. I… I don't know."

"What happened?" The Prime asked.

"She didn't say anything!" Kori declared. "She swung a stunner at me! She didn't warn me or anything. I blocked it of course. It was instinctive!"

"Okay." The Prime said slowly. "I can see that. Then what?"

"We struggled for the stunner." Kori said weakly. "She said I was in the way! That I needed to be removed from the way. I got control of the stunner and she pulled a needle. I didn't mean to hit her with it! I know my life is probably forfeit, but I didn't mean to!"

"Then you came looking for me?" The Prime asked slowly. "Why?"

"I needed to explain my infatuation." Kori said weakly. "It is juvenile and I know the feelings are not reciprocated. I am not really in love. My body is all messed up. My emotions likewise. You helped me and I like you a lot." She slumped in his grip. "That is all I had to say. I saw you shudder and realized you were under attack." The Prime looked at her and she shrugged. "I am a mind control specialist. I wanted to talk to you in the virtual world you were in. I never expected to find that. I do not regret it though. You are not evil."

"Kori, you do not know that." The Prime repeated gently. "I will talk to the docs. Maybe they can get at this mess in my head, help me make sense of it. For now, though, we need to face your punishment for hurting Amelia."

"I know." Kori shook herself and hit the door control. Then she screamed as the sound of automatic weapons fire came from just outside and a trio of bolts slammed into her. And through her. She slammed into the wall, pinned there by one of the bolts. She jerked feebly and then was still.

"_Kori!_" The Prime screamed. "_Damn it! Cease fire! She isn't armed!_" His only answer was another flurry of bolts. Someone had a Boltor. "_Cease fire! She is still alive!_" The pattern of fire shifted, arrowing towards where Kori hung. "Oh, hell no!" The Rhino cast Iron Skin and stepped into the path of the fire, the bolts shattering on his carapace. Now he could see the shooter. "Cease fire!" He called again at the… _Ash Prime_? What the-? The Ash Prime did not respond, indeed, he opened fire on full automatic, spraying bolts at the Rhino Prime that did nothing but fan the flames of the Rhino's temper.

"I don't know who the _hell_ you think you are." The Rhino Prime said as he stalked towards the Ash who holstered his rifle and drew a skana. "But you just made a _serious_ mistake." The Ash vanished in a cloud of smoke, only to be slammed to the floor and the Rhino drove a piledriver elbow backwards. Of course the other had tried for a backstab. The other warframe's sword went flying. Before the Ash could flee, the Rhino was on him. "I! Do! Not! Want! To! Fight! Kin!" The Rhino screamed, each word punctuated by a slamming fist. "Whoever the hell you are, _stand down!_" The Ash dove for the skana, only to receive a kick that threw him into the wall where he lay. "Or not." The Prime commented as he turned back to Kori. His warframe sensors showed life signs, if just barely. He pulled her down and green mist fell from his hand, healing the horrific wounds before she could bleed out. "Kori?"

"What the hell?" Kori asked as she rose. Fear coming back strong. "Why did he fire?"

"I don't know." The Rhino Prime said with a sigh. "He is alive. We need to find Karl."

"No need." The voice of the leader of the clan was cold and both looked up to see Karl standing at a junction, two more Prime warframes standing with Rhino. The Hek he held did not waver from the other Rhino. The others held armor piercing weapons on the Rhino. "Surrender, traitor."

"_Traitor_?" Kori breathed, horrified.

"We identified him. You attacked Amelia, Kori." Karl said softly, swinging slightly to cover her too. "Your life is forfeit."

"This is wrong." The Rhino Prime said slowly. "Blame me if you must. Whatever my past is, I cannot say or know. But Kori says that Amelia _attacked_ her. Something is _wrong_."

"I can't trust a word you say." Karl snapped. "Three to one. You can't win."

"I know." The Rhino Prime said sadly. "Kori, come here." Kori sidled close and then she gave an 'eep' as his hand closed on the neutralization collar and crunched it, shorting it out. The systems that should have electrocuted her did not function. She stared at him and then nodded and spoke calmly.

"Three to _two_."


	7. Chapter 7

**Flight**

"Kori…" Karl warned, his shotgun moving to aim at her. The Rhino Prime blocked his aim and Karl cursed. Both of the Primes with him –A Trinity and a Volt- aimed at Kori as well. Wise of them. She was the greater threat.

"Do not hurt anyone." The Rhino Prime's voice was low, but commanding. Kori nodded. "_One_ hurt kin is one too many." Karl stared at the other Rhino.

"As you wish." Kori said quietly, moving to keep the bulk of the Prime between her fragile warframe and the three firearms pointed at it. "Karl, Amelia attacked me." Karl did not react and Kori shook her head. "I was meditating in the medical bay and she came at me with a stunner. That was not like her. She said I was 'in the way'. I know my life is forfeit, Karl, but something is _wrong!_"

"If what you say is true, Kori…" Karl did not lower his weapon, but his voice was thoughtful. "Then yes. Something is. We will investigate. Step away from him, kneel and put your hands on your head."

"Do as he says, Kori." The Prime said quietly.

"And leave you to _die_?" Kori shook her head. "I would not let the _First_ execute you without an explanation." All three of the ones aiming at her were obviously staring at her now. "I won't let _them_ kill you without one either."

"Kori." Karl said slowly. "He disobeyed a direct command from the Orokin Emperor."

"What?" Kori staggered, but caught herself before she slid out of cover. She shook her head. "No. No, that can't _be_."

"Kori." The Rhino Prime said gently. "_Think_. I don't _remember_. I could be a _mass murderer_ for all you know and you wouldn't have a _clue_. I don't _know_. Kori, stand down. Please. Karl is _listening_."

"You are not evil." Kori begged, but slowly started to kneel. "Karl, he isn't _evil!_" She pleaded.

"I know." Karl sounded sad now. "And that makes it worse. What he did _cannot_ get out. _Cannot_ become common knowledge, Kori. I… personally think it was the right thing, but… I was not there. We won't kill him, Kori unless he resists." The two Primes at his side bristled and Karl snarled. "We will _not_ kill him."

"Then that is all I ask." Kori slumped a bit as she-

Everything stopped as Kori screamed. The tip of a Skana blade appeared from her chest and she fell to collapse in a heap as an Ash Prime–the one from before- appeared behind her, sword extended.

"_Kori!_" The Rhino Prime and Karl both shouted as one as both of the other Primes took aim. At _her_!

"_Enough!_" The Rhino Prime screamed and his boot came down. The entire hallway quivered from his Stomp, the Ash frozen in midstep, frozen in the midst of preparing to teleport away. He grabbed the much smaller male Tenno and threw him into the wall. The resulting dent was…sizable. "First you _shoot_ her, now you _stab_ her? What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" He drew back a huge fist, but paused as Karl's voice sounded.

"Stop." Karl did not have his shotgun up now. "We need answers. Why did she go to you?"

"She is infatuated." The Prime said softly as the other Primes struggled free of the Stomp's paralysis. "She came to me because she is infatuated. She _knows_ it too." He snapped as Karl inhaled. "She knows it is not real. That it is her emotions flip flopping. She doesn't _trust_ you." He stepped away from the slumped Ash and held his hand over the Nyx's form. Green mist fell again. His voice turned cold. "From what I have _seen_? I can't say I _blame_ her."

"I don't know him." Karl said slowly, turning a little to look at the Primes at his side. "You?" Both shook their heads. Their aim did not waver from Kori and the Rhino Prime. "Weapons down. _Now_!" he commanded.

"We have our orders." The Trinity Prime on his right said quietly.

"Didn't the _last_ time Eliza gave stupid orders teach you people _anything?_" Karl snapped. "She asked me to _bring_ him. She didn't say anything about _killing_ him. She also…" He shook his head. "Didn't say anything about sending an _assassin_ into my dojo." Now his tone could have frozen outer space.

"He is not one of ours." The Trinity Prime was still quiet. Was that _uncertainty_ in her voice?

"_What_?" Karl demanded. "Who _else_ has_ Ash Primes_?"

"I don't know." The Trinity replied uneasily. "He is alive." She nodded to where the Ash was feebly trying to crawl away. The Rhino Prime stepped forward, grabbed the Ash and held him up by the front of his warframe's neck.

"Who the _hell_ are you?" The Rhino Prime demanded as the Trinity moved closer and started to tend Kori, who was stable, but still badly hurt. "What the _hell_ are you doing attacking a sister?" He shook the Ash who just looked at him. "Answer me, damn it!"

"Citadel will rise again." The Ash spoke in a hoarse croak and then started to laugh as the Trinity stepped closer and started to scan him. She recoiled.

"_Plasma_ _charge_!" The Trinity screamed. "_He is_ _rigged_!"

The Rhino Prime threw the Ash away _hard_. The laughing Tenno hit the wall with a loud snap and exploded. The Prime shielded the unconscious Nyx and the Trinity from the blast. He stayed crouched over Kori's still form as the others rose. He stared at the blackened patch of wall that was the sole testimony that a crippled Tenno had been there a moment before.

"What the _hell_ is going on here?" The Rhino Prime demanded. "You say I am a traitor. Maybe I was. I don't know. But why attack _Kori_ of all people?"

"I don't know." Karl said soberly. "Stand down." The Two Primes did not lower their weapons and Karl snarled at them. "Stand _down_. Now. Something stinks here. And I am not going to get anyone else hurt until we know _what_. Stand. Down." He stepped bodily between them and Kori and they lowered their weapons. Kori moaned and Karl's voice turned gentler. "Kori?"

"I am making a habit of this…" Kori said weakly. "I have to stop. Hurts like hell."

"Status?" Karl asked.

"Systems online." Kori said softly. "He cut deep, but my warframe is repairing the damage. Can't move, but… I am alive. Why did he attack me, Karl Sensei?" She begged.

"I don't know." Karl admitted. Both Primes had relaxed now and he shook his head. "First the colony and now here." He looked at the Rhino Prime who slumped.

"While I was meditating, I was pulled into a virtual world." The Prime said slowly. "Someone said that death and destruction follow me. Is that true?"

"_Some_one?" Karl asked, looking at the blackened patch of wall.

"I don't know who it was." The golden Rhino said with a wince. "Looked like the First Tenno, but then the _real_ First showed up and was… unhappy." All of the _other_ standing warframes winced in unison. "Yeah." The Rhino Prime said dryly. "He was going to kill me in the virtual world, fry my mind there and my body fails out here. Kori stopped him." All three of the others stared at Kori who managed a limp shrug. "She said it wasn't right. I tried to get her to leave. She wouldn't. Stubborn Tenno."

"It wasn't right." Kori tried to sit up and fell back with a gasp. "Whatever you were, you are not now."

"Kori." The Rhino Prime groaned. "You do not _know_ that. If I _was_ a traitor as Karl and these believe… Then what is the punishment by the Code?"

"Death." Kori said sadly.

"Death." The Rhino Prime agreed. "There are no loopholes, no gray areas. If I broke the Code, there is only one punishment. And you know it, Kori." She gave a small cry, but nodded feebly.

"You didn't." The Trinity said softly. All eyes turned to her and she sighed. "It wasn't that simple." She started to speak again and paused as the Rhino Prime raised a preemptive hand.

"Stop!" The Rhino Prime commanded. "I can figure it out. You are sworn not to speak of it. Just like Nikis." Karl jerked and the Rhino Prime nodded. "Damn it… Whatever the hell I did caused a massive mess. Will my _death_ fix it?" He asked Karl.

"I don't know." Karl admitted. "I am to take you to Eliza. These are her guards." The Prime looked from Karl to the Volt and Trinity Primes and then stiffened.

"Oh… dear…" The Rhino Prime said slowly. "I… um… I didn't think any of them survived. Or their principal."

"They don't advertise the fact." Karl said softly. "Not many did. But you know who they are, don't you?"

"I do. And…I see." The Rhino Prime said softly. "What about Kori?"

"The surveillance systems were offline in medical for the time just before Amelia was found unconscious." Karl said with a grunt. "Brianna found Amelia and contacted me as soon as I returned. She was going to do a full…" A com chimed and he snarled. "What _now_?" He stalked to the intercom and hit it. "Yes?"

"Sensei!" This was the Frost Prime Cyberlancer Olim. And he sounded upset. "We have a 'foothold' situation! Hostile nanobots detected! Amelia was infected!"

"Lockdown!" Karl commanded. "Seal the systems!"

"We are trying!" Tapping of keys and beeping sounded over the intercom. "They are in the command circuitry! Heading your way. Sensei… I did a preliminary sweep of the bots' programming. They are targeting Kori! To _kill_."

"What?" Karl, Kori and all three Primes cried out as one. Karl shook his head and spoke again. "Any idea _why?_"

"No." The Cyberlancer sounded miffed now. "I can't get a good read on these. Sensei… According to Grisha, these are Orokin design infiltration biotech nanobots. She would know."

"Frack me." Karl swallowed hard. "Yeah, she is intel. Olim, get ready to purge all systems." A gasp came from the com, but then an acknowledgement. "It is the only way to be sure. We will lose a lot, but Cecelia backed up everything in secure locations."

"If they are after me, give me to them and this ends." Kori said quietly. "It's not like I can flee." She gave a squeak as the Rhino Prime bent down and lifted her easily. "I… No…"

"For all we know…" The Volt Prime spoke for the first time. "They might be programmed to take control of you and make you set the reactors to overload. Without your collar on, you could take control of _anyone_."

"But… I…" Kori gasped as the odd group started off. "What do we _do_?"

"We get you the hell out of here." Karl replied. "But first… Sweep?" The Volt nodded and produced a scanner that whirred as it aimed at Kori and then the Rhino Prime. Karl made an interrogative noise and the Volt shook his head. "Of course not. That would have been too easy."

"You think I was infected by these nanobots?" The Rhino Prime held Kori carefully as they raced through the corridors. "Carried them into the colony and here?"

"Was a possibility." Karl mused. "I mean, this didn't start until you and…" He jerked to a stop and the Rhino Prime exclaimed.

"_Karen_!" The Rhino Prime snapped. "If it was something on or _in_ my pod…? Where is Karen?"

"She is still out on her mission." Karl said with a growl. "We need to get you and Kori somewhere secure. But…" The thought was obvious. How to hold something like a Rhino warframe if he didn't want to be held?

"I will not resist." The Rhino Prime said formally. "What do you want me to do?"

"Kori is the target." Karl said as they entered a larger room. The Rhino Prime paused as he realized it was a portal chamber. "Stand in the middle." The Trinity and Volt Primes moved to flank the Rhino Prime holding Kori.

"No." Kori begged. "They will kill him."

"Eliza wants to talk." Karl said, tapping keys quickly. "She promised me that. I… believe her this time. Michelle vouched for her."

"Michelle is a good judge of character." Kori said with a gasp as she shifted in the Rhino Prime's hands.

"Don't move, Kori." The Rhino Prime warned her and she went still. "You are still hurt. That blade would have killed you. It _did_ sever your spine. Your warframe is healing the damage." He looked at Karl. "I don't know what is going on, but I trust you, Karl." Karl went still and the Rhino Prime nodded. "You care about your people. You believe in them. That feels… right." Both Primes at his side turned to stare at him and he sighed. "Just do it."

"We can't send you back where we came from." Karl said with a snarl. "They control the portals to and from and have a set schedule. But we can send you somewhere that it won't… No!" He cried as the panel under his fingers started to spark. "Get off the platform!" The Primes did not hesitate, darting to either side. The Rhino Prime, encumbered by Kori, was slower and the golden glow built and froze him in place.

"Protect your people!" The Rhino Prime called as the golden glow built around him, the precursor to quantum entanglement transportation. "We will wait wherever we come out." _**If **__we come out. _He carefully did not say aloud as Kori was already screaming. Then they was elsewhere. "Easy, Kori. Easy…" He soothed the screaming Nyx and she quieted.

"Wha-?" Kori begged. "What happened?"

"The portal activated." The Rhino Prime said quietly. "It wasn't supposed to. I couldn't get off the platform in time."

"Where are we?" Kori asked, staring around. The room was dark and forbidding.

"No idea." The Rhino Prime said as he laid her down gently. "I will look around."

"Be careful." Kori pleaded. "Still can't move." He patted her hand and moved around a bit.

The gloom around them was absolute, however and he could barely see her after a moment. The lights on his gauntlet illuminated only a small bit of the room at a time. The space was not that large however and he came back to where Kori lay after a few minutes of searching.

"No exit that I can find." The Prime said as he knelt down beside the still Nyx. "Could be one hidden somewhere."

"What do we do?" Kori tried to sit up, gasped and fell back.

"You, relax." The Rhino Prime said sternly. "You need time to recover. A Skana in the back is not a minor injury, Kori."

"Why did that Ash attack me?" Kori asked. "I didn't know him. Was that a Prime Ash?"

"I think so." The Rhino Prime said with a sigh. "The others didn't know him either." He jumped up as a soft, menacing voice sounded form the darkness.

"Well, well, well…" The soft voice seemed to come from nowhere, but the Rhino turned his head, seeking the source. "What have we here?" The voice was cold, as dark as the gloom surrounding the pair of warframes.

"A pair of lost souls." The Prime Rhino said firmly.

"Well then, you have come to the right place, Tenno." Something flashed out of the darkness, but the Rhino Prime had activated Iron Skin moments before and interposed himself between the thrown blade and the immobile Nyx. "You only delay the inevitable." The voice said calmly, moving. But the Rhino did not.

"And you are standing where the blade came from." The Rhino Prime said just as calmly. "Nice trick. But throwing your voice is _old_." His gauntlet light came on and illuminated a dark form that slid away despite his quick attempted to follow it.

"Oh no…" Kori moaned. "No…Stalker!" She tried to sit up again and screamed before falling back.

"The sweet sound of –urk!" The dark form choked off as the Rhino Prime charged. Then he laughed. "Your Tenno powers are…" Whatever else he was going to say was cut off by the Rhino's uppercut. Then he was backing away, trying to fend off the blows thrown by the angry Rhino. "Enough!" He vanished form in front of the Rhino and the Prime retreated to stand over Kori's shuddering form. "Who _are_ you?"

"I don't know." The Prime said calmly. "But I will not let my sister fall to some dark and twisted half _shadow_ of a Tenno."

"I _am_ Tenno!" the dark voice screamed. "You _all_ lost your way!" A hiss of air and a clang and something glanced off the Rhino's armored skin. An arrow.

"If you do not want me to take that bow from you and insert it somewhere _very_ unpleasant, you will back the _hell_ off." The Rhino said in a dreadful voice. "_Now_. Before I _lose_ my temper."

"That _voice_…" The boogeyman sounded shaken now. "That… It _can't_ be…" A red and black warframe stepped forward into the light from the Prime's gauntlet. Its bow was in hand and another arrow was nocked, but the shaft hung down, hanging slack. Every motion the warframe made spoke of stunned amazement. "_Richard?_"

"Is there _anyone_ in this solar system who _doesn't_ know who you are besides _you_?" Kori asked in between gasps of pain. "I…"

"Easy, Kori." The Prime said softly, not taking his eyes from the red and black warframe. "I don't know you. I don't remember most of what happened to me. But I am not your enemy."

"No." The twisted warframe said slowly. Then… he _knelt_. "Master Richard. It is good to see you again." The Stalker said as he bowed formally from the kneeling position.

_What the F***?_


	8. Chapter 8

**Stalked**

"I apologize." The red and black warframe said quietly. "This place is a sanctuary of sorts. But I knew it would not be long before mine enemies found it."

"No harm done." The Rhino Prime didn't take his eyes off the strange warframe. Kori hadn't wanted to be treated in the stranger's medical gear, but she had hurt herself badly trying to get up and her warframe systems couldn't keep up. The red and black garbed form had been…gentle in moving her unconscious form to a state of the art medical facility that was not far from where they had portaled in. "To _us_."

"I…" The Stalker as Kori had called him seemed to wilt a bit. "This is all I am. All I have now. Vengeance."

"A hard road." The Rhino Prime said quietly. "And an ultimately self-defeating one."

"I know. I have dug two graves." The Stalker replied uneasily. "But it is all I have."

"Well, considering how I am apparently a _traitor_…" He did not miss the red and black warframe's sudden tension. "Who am_ I_ to judge?"

"I… cannot say." The Stalker replied. "I wasn't there. I heard about it of course. Most of us did. Those who…followed you did so willingly." He offered. The Prime did not react and the Stalker looked at him. "You are not going to ask?"

"Too much information can kill just as surely as too little." The Rhino said with a wince. "You have done me and Kori a service. But we bring danger with us. Karl's clan will pursue us. And… someone else."

"Who?" The boogeyman seemed only slightly less scary in the light of the medical ward.

"I don't know." The Rhino admitted. "But they used and I quote 'Orokin design infiltration biotech nanobots.' They subverted a healer and may have caused a revolution at a colony. Does your vendetta extend to non-combatants?" He asked carefully.

"No." The Stalker sounded concerned now. "Only Warriors. I scanned odd readings from the largest colony I know of and then it went off coms. _Revolution_?" He sounded scared now.

"We think so." The Rhino Prime said sadly. "From what little I can gather, my pod was infected with those nanobots, somehow. It was deep in the Void." The Stalker made a 'hmmm' noise and the Prime continued. "A sister protected me while I woke, but none of us detected anything in decontamination. If she was exposed to the nanobots, or if I was…" He trailed off and the Stalker nodded.

"Then as soon as you arrived on the colony, they escaped from your warframe surface and started roaming." The Stalker said sourly. "From either or _both_ of you. They found hosts and started their nastiness. Control or subversion, same things. Blasted Orokin and their biotech _toys_." Hate sounded in his voice now.

"Yeah." The Prime agreed. "Anyway, Nikis is…" he broke off as the Stalker gasped.

"_Nikis?_" The Stalker sounded… terrified now. "_He_ is still around?"

"Yeah." The Prime said, a bit dubious. "If you are hunting Tenno… wouldn't you know?"

"I hunt the false ones." The Stalker said quietly. The Prime went still and Stalker nodded. "I swore a blood oath to find them and remove the stain from the honor of the Tenno." The Prime just looked at him and the Stalker raised empty hands in warding. "I know, I know… It's a long dark road and I have frequently lost my way. But I swore an oath."

"An oath is meant to be kept." The Prime said quietly and then changed the subject. "We will be followed." He said quietly. "And not by one, but by _many_."

"You do not remember." Stalker said quietly. "But you did me a service, long ago. I did not think it a service at the time. I wanted to fight. To prove myself in battle. You forbade it." The red and black helmet bowed. "If only I had listened."

"Hindsight is always clearer." The Rhino Prime said calmly. "You know I cannot trust you."

"You would be a _fool_ to." Stalker agreed. "And you are no fool, Richard. You acted it on occasion, but it was usually for a long laid plan."

"Not that I know of this time." The Prime said quietly. "But then again, how would I know? How long?" He nodded to where Kori lay.

"Another twenty minutes." The Stalker replied after checking some readouts. "And you can see what the systems are doing." Indeed, the readouts were clear even to untrained eyes. The only place the medical equipment was touching was the back of Kori's warframe. Repairing the terrible wound there. "Where will you go?"

"I don't know." The Prime admitted. "Lots of enemies about in this fallen world." He mused. "Including the Ash Prime who stabbed Kori." Stalker stiffened again and he nodded. "He blew himself up to avoid capture."

"As much as I hate most of the Tenno…" Stalker said quietly. "That is totally atypical behavior."

"You are telling me." The Prime said sourly. "Why are you being so forward?" He shook his head. "And don't talk to me about an ancient debt. I know better." Stalker nodded.

"You did me a service long ago." Stalker replied easily. "But mainly? Neither you nor this one were involved in what I seek vengeance for. I have limits. They are… fluid, but I do have them." The Prime looked sidelong at the red and black warframe and Stalker shrugged. "I am lost, but I will find my vengeance before I fall." The Prime just looked at him and the Stalker chuckled a bit sourly. "_And_ I don't want you to beat the crap out of me as you did while I was one of your apprentices. Gah, I was young and stupid…"

"Well…" The Prime said with a shrug. "I thank you for helping this hurt sister. The only clue that I have is that the assassin spoke before he died." The Stalker tensed and the Prime nodded. "He said 'Citadel will rise', whatever that means." Stalker had gone completely still and the Prime nodded. "That means something to you, doesn't it?"

"The First's Citadel was on Earth." Stalker said quietly. "A hidden redoubt of wondrous technology. Or so it was said. I never saw it."

"I can't see the any of the First acting like that." The Prime said slowly. "He was _laughing_ as he exploded." The Stalker shook his head. "That means something to you as well, doesn't it?"

"Maybe." The Stalker sounded unsure. "It's not… It was a long, long time ago. I have walked these ruins for so long, alone." The Prime bowed his head a bit and the Stalker shook his. "I am not asking for _sympathy_!" He declared.

"Good, because I am not _offering_ any." The Prime retorted. Stalker stared at him and then laughed.

"Geez, you haven't changed." The red and black warframe was quivering in amusement now. Then it stilled. "Shortly after… the Collapse… I encountered a Nyx. I killed her, as I did all the false Tenno I found. And find." The Prime did not react and Stalker continued. "She laughed as she died. Then she exploded."

"A trap for you?" The Prime asked slowly.

"At the time, I thought so." Stalker replied, thinking hard. "Now? I am not so sure."

"Well, if the Citadel was on Earth, then I guess Kori and I go to Earth." The Prime said with a shrug. "I remember tales of the First's Citadel. Antarctica continent, yes?"

"Yes." Stalker replied, but was obviously distracted by something. The Prime waited and finally Stalker spoke again. "You would go alone? Unarmed?"

"Weapons do not make a Tenno." The Prime quoted from the Code and Stalker nodded. "We do what we must. Kori and I are not defenseless."

"I'll say." The Stalker said with a dark chuckle. "I…" He shook his head slowly. "You do not want to hear what I am going to say, but I must. I do owe you for my own ignorance as a youth."

"We were _all_ ignorant as youths." The Prime said sternly. "It is part of the definition of immaturity."

"True." Stalker replied. "I never went to the Citadel, but I saw it once." The Prime stiffened and the Stalker nodded. "A group of us… answered your call."

"_My_ call?" The Prime demanded.

"Yes." Stalker replied. "I was… full of fire and wanted to fight. The others went on. I went away. Back to the Orokin. I didn't know what they were doing. No one did. I just wanted to fight, to prove myself against the Sentients." The Prime did not react and the Stalker sighed. "You wonder where the other warframes came from? The not-Primes?"

"I figured the Orokin made them." The Prime said quietly. "I am not going to like this, am I?"

"You didn't before." Stalker said grimly. "Most of the Tenno who followed the dictates of the First remained true to the Code. To defend humanity against the horrors of the Technocyte Virus."

"I remember that." The Prime agreed. "Then… what?"

"There were not that many." Stalker's tone was sad and sick now. "Maybe three dozen total? Primes." The Rhino Prime inhaled sharply and Stalker nodded. "What does any military need?"

"Weapons." The Prime replied softly. "They didn't…" He breathed, horrified.

"We were losing, being pushed back despite our abilities." Stalker said quietly. "Too many enemies that had once been human. Every piece of tech and bio tech that the Orokin made, the Sentients subverted. As they captured humans, they enslaved them. We were losing."

"So… what?" The Prime asked, clearly dreading the answer.

"The Orokin Emperor went to the Citadel." Stalker replied, hate in his voice now. "He demanded your assistance. You told him to and I quote 'get out'."

"Oh… crap…" The Prime swallowed hard. "I can see where this is going…"

"Some of the Tenno in the Citadel sided with you." Stalker said quietly. "Some with the Emperor. I do not think anyone died. But I don't know." He shook his head. "The story is that you surrendered to Imperial Justice and the Orokin took the designs for the warframes. Next thing we know… There were thousands, hundreds of thousands –maybe millions for all I know- of things that looked and fought like Tenno swarming against the Sentients." The Stalker shook his head. "False Tenno."

"Clones?" The Prime demanded.

"Nothing so simple." The Stalker replied. "The Orokin were masters of biotechnology and mental manipulation. They couldn't exactly copy the warframes, but the copies they made were powerful. Unfortunately, just giving people that kind of power…"

"With no moral guide…" The Prime shook his head. "Damn… They turned on each other, didn't they?"

"It was random." Stalker replied. "Some killed the enemy. Some killed each other. Some killed civilians. Totally out of control. The Sentients retreated for a bit, but then took advantage."

"Why didn't they _win_?" The Prime demanded. "If the Orokin screwed up that badly, they should have!"

"The Orokin…didn't quite screw up entirely." The Stalker said with a snort. "Not for lack of trying, mind you. But some of the False Tenno had been exposed to people like us." He waved a slow hand at the Prime and then himself. "There were not enough of us, but for a time, it seemed we could teach them what it was to be Tenno." He shook his head. "We failed."

"Did we?" The Prime asked slowly. "I have seen others… Some of the 'False' as you call them, act with honor and integrity. Follow the Code, often to their detriment. Is that my preconceptions coloring things?"

"I don't know." The Stalker said with a sigh. "You could smell falsehoods when I was an apprentice, but…" He shrugged again. "People change."

"The one absolute in life is change." The Prime nodded. "I will not join you in your quest for vengeance."

"Probably just as well." The Stalker said with a sour chuckle. "We would have an argument and you would beat the crap out of me again." He mock shuddered. "Once was _enough_." The mismatched pair shared a chuckle. "I will go set the portal for a nexus I know on Earth. It was on the Antarctic continent, not sure how far from the Citadel. We took a transport when the group went. You friend will wake momentarily."

"So I was trying to abide by the First's command." The Prime mused as Stalker left the room. His thoughts broke off abruptly as Kori woke up with a shrill cry of fear. "Kori, Kori… easy…" the machinery retracted, the back of her warframe pristine again.

"That was _Stalker_!" Kori grabbed at the Prime's hands as she rolled off the table. "He is a _murderer_! A _kinslayer_!"

"So he said." The Prime agreed. "But his vendetta dates from the Collapse. You and I were both gone before then, yes?"

"You were in cryo and I was being experimented on." Kori shivered hard and moved close to the Rhino. "I… He called you 'Master'…" She clung tight to his arm and he let her. "Powers don't work on him and…"

"I don't know what to believe here, Kori." The Prime said with a grunt. "He said some things… He thinks he knew me, that I was one of his teachers… before."

"Be at ease, milady." Kori gave a shrill scream and darted behind the Rhino Prime as Stalker appeared in the doorway. "I mouthed off to him at a bad time and he showed his displeasure in several _extremely_ uncomfortable ways." He shook his head. "Do not irritate him, milady." The Stalker said with a mild laugh. "It will hurt." Kori did not move and Stalker sighed. "She will not trust me, and… truth be told? Fear is my weapon is as much my weapon as my scythe, knives and arrows are."

"A dangerous weapon." The Rhino Prime agreed.

"All I have is what you see." Stalker said quietly. "I can offer one of my weapons…" He paused as the Rhino Prime shook his head. His tone turned wry. "I thought you would say that."

"Come Kori." The Rhino Prim eased her gently into motion, careful to stay between her and Stalker. "We need to go."

"The portal is set for what was called the McMurdo Nexus." Stalker said quietly. "Master Richard, it is… good to see you. I wish you well on your journey." With that, he was gone.

"You can't trust him!" Kori was shivering hard as she walked, head spinning from side to side as if waiting for the boogeyman to leap out of the shadows.

"Who said _anything_ about _trusting_ him?" The Rhino Prime asked sourly. Kori paused and stared at him. "Kori, the vengeance crazed _cannot_ be trusted." He shook his head. "I highly doubt he trusts _himself_ after so long. A dark and troubled path. Not one for you or me to walk."

"He kills Tenno!" Kori protested.

"And he saved your _life_." The Rhino Prime retorted. Kori went still and the Rhino sighed. "Kori, I don't trust him, and he knows it. Whether or not this is some game to him, or he actually _did_ know me and considered this some kind of honor debt to be paid… We may never know. What I do know is _this_. He will _not_ have left this place for his enemies to find. We better get out of here. Now."

The two Tenno darted into the portal room, this time dimly lit. The Rhino checked the portal settings and indeed, it had been set of the Antarctic continent on Earth. But then, the portal lit up without him hitting a control! The signal wasn't coming from a planet. It was coming…

"Kori!" The Prime yelled as he ran to where she was standing in the middle of the platform, frozen. He reached her just as the field snapped into place and… they were elsewhere.

"Hail the leader!" A chorus of monotone voices came from around them. The Prime stood, holding Kori as a group of Tenno in bodysuits and robes knelt… to him! "We have rescued the leader! Hail the leader!"

"They are controlled! Don't let them touch you!" The Rhino Prime snapped as several of the kneeling forms rose and stepped towards where Kori cringed. He placed himself between her and the controlled noncombatants. "Back off!" He commanded. They…did.

"That one is unclean, Leader. She is in the way." One of the robed forms said, still in a monotone. "That one must be cleansed and made whole. Leader will know what to do."

"I am not your leader." The Rhino Prime snapped. "We are leaving."

"What the hell is going on?" Kori begged, backing away from the group that was slowly surging towards the pair of warframes.

"I don't know." The Prime snarled and interposed himself again. The small Tenno who had been moving towards Kori retreated a step, but merged with the group and closed again. "We don't want to hurt you." The Prime declared to the crowd. "Stand away."

"The Leader must lead." The crowd declared in one voice. It was beyond creepy. "The Leader will lead. The Leader must lead."

"Behind us!" Kori called and the Rhino turned to see another group of civilian Tenno, all unarmed, blocking the exit. "Damn it! I can't kill civilians!"

"I know." The Prime replied. "Stay where you are!" He commanded and the mob froze in place. "Let us pass."

"That one must be cleansed." The mobs single voice spoke from everywhere. "That one will be cleansed. With the unclean influence removed, all will be well. No harm, Leader." The mob closed in again and then recoiled as the Rhino let out a roar.

"I will be the judge of that!" The Rhino Prime snapped. "Kori, left wall?" Kori moved to the wall and paused, then nodded. "Move!" She dove to the side as he spun and charged the wall. A horrendous clang sounded, but a hole was opened… into a maintenance duct. "Go!"

Kori needed no further encouragement. She darted into the hole, followed by the Rhino Prime. The crowd followed, speaking loudly in its one voice.

"Come back, Leader. Come back…"


	9. Chapter 9

**Refusal**

This was insane. They were probably running through the maintenance ducts of the Tenno colony that Karen had taken him to just after the mission where she had found him. But there was no real way to be sure. He had no idea where he was going. He doubted that Kori did. But whatever lay ahead had to be better than the madness they had left behind.

The Rhino Prime couldn't believe it. The odd acting noncombatant Tenno had called him 'Leader'. That meant that whatever this oddity was, it had been planned. And he had a pivotal role to play in this plan. He didn't want to know. He had known this was going to be bad, but this…?

At least Kori was holding it together. He wasn't sure what the odd voice that had spoken from all the noncombatant Tennos' mouths had meant by 'cleansing' but he _was_ certain it was nothing good. He had to get her away from this somehow. She had to be very fragile emotionally after all the shocks. So…

His thoughts slithered to a stop as Kori froze at a junction with other ducts and held up a hand. He moved up close so they could speak and she nodded.

"I hear movement in two ducts. Forward and right. Nothing left." Kori said in a tone just above a whisper. The Prime approved. Whispers carried far further than people thought they could. She pointed to one side an ahead of where they had been moving. "Anything behind?"

"Yes." The Prime had heard noises from behind them. Movement of feet not trying to be furtive. "So… one way with no noise. Trap?"

"My instincts say 'No.'" Kori replied uneasily. "But I have no idea why. Too long out of the field I guess."

"Instinct can be a good thing." The Rhino listened hard and shook his head. The movement sounded from the other three direction were coming closer. "If these are controlled by nanobots, then they spread by physical contact." Kori nodded. "They cannot move fast or far on their own. But if they get into wiring or…" He paused and leaned away form a control panel nearby. "We cannot be paralyzed by fear. Go left?" Kori nodded, but her body language was unhappy. Small wonder. The Rhino Prime was seriously unhappy himself.

Unarmed. Outnumbered. Stuck who knew where with who knew how many brainwashed noncombatants trying to herd them or capture them. Killing these people was an absolute last resort. They were not enemies, just… not under their own control. Kori eased forward into the left hand branch and the Rhino Prime followed. It made sense for her to lead. She would be able to take control of any single hostile without hurting them. The Rhino? Not so much. He was far more durable, but had fewer less than lethal options without his gear. Now if they ran into more than one…

"Leader." The monotone voices called form back in the ducts. "Stop. We need you. Lead us."

The Rhino Prime did not reply, simply shook his head and followed Kori into duct they had chosen. He was ready for anything but…nothing happened. The duct ahead was unmarred by anything as crass as traps or hidden swarms of odd acting noncombatant Tenno. He paused as Kori held up a hand in a 'motion ahead' gesture and he eased forward slowly. There was nothing he could see and he looked at her. She nodded towards a shadowed section of the duct and he took a step towards that, only to freeze again as it erupted into motion. The small from ran… away from the two warframes! It was smaller than adult sized and it wore a Tenno bodysuit.

"Wait!" The Prime called. "We are not your enemies." But the small form was gone.

"Was that a kid?" Kori asked cautiously. "I couldn't get a good look. Nothing to lock onto to control."

"I think so." The Prime said carefully. "Wait… The movement behind us has stopped." Indeed, there were no sounded of movement in the ducts now. None at all.

"Leader." The voice from the massed voices sounded upset now. "Come back."

Kori and the Prime shared a glance and started off in the direction that the young form had gone. Just in case there _was_ a trap, the Rhino took the lead, every sense hyperaware. But nothing happened. They came to another junction and nothing shone in any direction. Kori looked at the Prime who shrugged and moved left. With no means of knowing where they were or where they were going, turning laft at each junction would allow them to retract their steps quickly and carefully. Unless his inertial mapping system was totally on the blink, they were still moving away from the portal room where they had come in, so… That was a good thing, yes? He hoped so.

He stepped forward cautiously and stopped a something changed. He couldn't figure out what until Kori gasped. He spun to see her backing away from him.

"What?" He asked, then stared down at himself. The surface of his warframe was alive with energy. He shook himself. "It doesn't hurt. Some kind of discharge?"

"You passed something that emitted energy just after you did." Kori said, pointing at the wall. Close scrutiny showed a jury rigged… something that lay against a power cable there. "I don't have any scanners that can read the type of energy, but it if isn't hurting you…" She stepped forward and paused as energy spat at her and… "Whoa!" She jerked as several pulses of power erupted around her. "What the hell?" She stared as wisps of ash fell from her warframe to flutter to the ground. "Nanobots? Was I carrying nanobots?"

"Maybe." The Prime said quietly. "Your warframe is still sealed, yes?" Kori nodded and the Prime gave a grunt. "Then they had no physical access to you."

"What would they have done to me?" Kori pleaded, stared at her hands that were glowing with white tracings of energy now.

"Turned you." A soft, scared voice sounded from nearby and both Tenno spun to see a small form unfold from a wall where it had been concealed. "Turned you into one of them." The young Tenno was female. She also could not have been over five standard years old. "I thought you were with them."

"We are not." The Prime reassured the girl. "Nice trick." He nodded to the wall and the girl made a face that might have been a smile. Or not.

"They cannot pass the discharge points." The girl said quietly. "Who are you?"

"This is Kori." The Prime waved to the Nyx who nodded to the girl. "And I don't remember my name. But I was told it was Richard. You can call me that."

"You…" The girl swallowed hard. "You are the Prime that _started_ all of this…" Anger sounded in her voice now. "What did you _do?_"

"I didn't do this." The Prime said quietly. "I don't know what happened. Is this Mavri's colony?" The girl nodded slowly and he sighed. "Do you know what happened to him?" She shook her head. "Drat. I had hoped."

"He was a good leader." The girl said sadly. "He had us planning in case the Grineer came. Most of us came to shelters when the alarms went off. But no one else came. And then… the others… started acting funny, and…" She was obviously trying not to cry. Tough kid.

"Hey." Kori said gently. "Come here." She knelt down and held out her arms. After a moment of stunned surprise, the girl ran to her, tears starting to fall. "This is nothing you could have possibly prepared for. What is your name, honey? Like he said, I am Kori." She held the girl gently as the young Tenno sobbed.

"M….Mary." The girl managed to get out. "I have been so scared."

"I know." Kori soothed the girl and then swung her up into a carry position as the girl clung. "Are you alone?" The girl nodded and Kori slumped a bit. "I am sorry." She hugged the girl gently and Miria relaxed. "We will get you out of here, Mary. Not sure how yet, but we will."

"Mary, how many discharge points are there?" The Prime asked, staring at the thing on the wall. It had obviously been built. "Did you do this?" The small Tenno shook her head.

"There are lots of them down here." The girl said quietly. "I found them when… when my mom… She chased me and I…" She curled into a ball in Kori's arms and Kori soothed her.

"Easy." Kori said gently. "Easy, girl…" She crooned.

"Well, if you didn't do this…" The Prime said slowly. "Someone did. The question is… who?" He paused and then reached out to tap something on the wall. "Whoever it is, is watching us right now. And if you think that leaving a little girl to cry alone in the dark is _good_ thing, you and I are going to talk." Malice sang in the Prime's voice now.

"Leave me alone!" A male voice said shrilly from the wall. "Go away!"

"And _where_ are we supposed to go, hmmm?" The Prime demanded. "I wonder what would happen if we started disabling these?" He tapped the box on the wall and the voice screamed.

"No! Don't…" The voice sounded both irate and terrified. "They will get in!"

"And you _really_ think they can't get past these?" Kori snapped, holding Mary gently. "Bypass the ducts that hold them completely? Dig through to get around them once they know where they are?"

"I know these ducts better than anyone!" The voice snapped. "And I have other defenses!"

"Proof against Orokin design biotech infiltration nanobots?" The Prime asked, his tone curious. "Wow. Even a dojo's impressive security wasn't enough." A gasp came from the hidden speaker and he snorted. "You have no idea _what_ you are facing, do you?"

"Neither do you!" The voice snapped, but fear sang in it.

"We are facing some form of subversion and control nanites." The Prime said calmly. "Where they came from or why, we don't know. They may or may not have been on the pod I was found in. Or inside it. They call me 'Leader' but I remember nothing about this. Nothing at all."

"They have been congregating." The voice of the unseen watcher said with a gulp. "Acting like… Like they were waiting for something."

"You are patched into the surveillance system." Kori said with a hint of bite. "For how long?" Silence answered her and she scoffed. "Figured. Some kind of fringe job. Was it _zombies_ or _aliens with probes_?" She had a wicked edge to her voice and both the Prime and the girl stared at her. The male voice from the speaker sputtered. "Never mind… I know who you are, _Lou_." Her voice was vicious now and both the Prime and the girl stared at her. She shrugged. "I had a lot of time to myself in rehab. And no one gossips like nurses."

"Do I want to know?" The Prime asked, only half in jest.

"He is the poster boy for conspiracy theories regarding the Lotus." Kori said with a snort. "Which one were you favoring, Lou? That she was targeting you _specifically_ or that it was some kind of experimental weapon?" the voice from the speaker was sputtering non-stop now and Kori shook her head. "Let's not waste time with him. He is a _nutball_." She said with feeling. "And coming from _me?_ That is saying something."

"The Lotus is evil!" The voice from the speaker snapped. "And I have proof!"

"Sure, you do Lou." Kori said with fake sympathy oozing. The girl giggled at that and Kori snickered as Lou sputtered again. "Like the last time? The 'evil' reclamation units that were spying on you that you shot _grenades_ into?"

"They were spying on me!" Lou screamed.

"Lou…" Kori winced dramatically. "You destroyed _two_ entire reclamation systems trying to find the evil spy probes that you said were there. Using high explosives on sewage systems is… not a good idea. Then there was the whole _cleaning droid_ fiasco…" Mary snickered at Kori's tone as the speaker hissed.

"I don't want to know." The Prime mused, sotto voice.

"No, you don't." Kori agreed. "Lou is a nut's nut. A good tech according to Karl and others, but… a nut." She shook her head. "We would do well to stay away from him."

"Do we have a choice?" The Prime felt…ambivalent about this. A nut was not the best choice for an ally, but if they had no other allies…

"If we _do_, he will intersperse every other sentence with rants about how the Lotus is mind controlling us." Kori said a she set Mary back down on her feet. The girl kept hold of the Nyx's hand. "I heard a lot about him in the psyche ward."

"I heard a lot about you to, Miss Traitor." Lou snapped. "You helped that evil doctor mind control other Tenno! For all I know you are with the Lotus!" Both Mary and the Prime looked at Kori who sighed. "Don't deny it!"

"I don't deny that I was captured and experimented upon by evil scientists during the war." Kori said slowly, choosing her words with care. "I don't deny that I was compelled to capture the Tenno strike team that came after they found out about the doctors mad scheme to use Orokin technology mixed with the Technocyte virus." The Prime winced at that and Kori nodded. "I don't even deny that while I was in rehab, Grina came to me and told me of a chance to get better, faster which I jumped at. The consequences are on my own head. I _do_ deny your allegations that the Lotus is _evil_, because I for one haven't seen it." She snapped. "If she were evil, you would be dead. Or at least incapable of being such a _twit_."

"Wow." The Prime couldn't stop himself from applauding. "Well said, sister." Mary was grinning from ear to ear. There was silence from the speaker and Kori snorted mirthlessly.

"What is it going to be, Lou?" Kori demanded. "Sit here alone until you get subsumed or help us? I don't care either way." A growl came from the speaker and Kori laughed. "Lou… I have been hanging around really scary people recently. Your growl isn't patch on _Karl's_."

"Fine." The voice was sour now. "Follow the red pipes." The speaker hissed off and the two warframes looked at each other. The Prime shrugged.

"If he does have surveillance feeds…" The Rhino said slowly.

"Then sooner or later, they will get to him through the feeds." Kori said with a sigh. "Come here, girl." She said as Mary took a step. She swung Mary up into her arms and the Prime hissed as he saw the girl was barefoot! "You lost your boots?" She asked kindly.

"Mom grabbed me." Mary said weakly. "I ran, she grabbed my boots and I got out of them. She came to one of those boxes and screamed. I… I ran…" Kori hugged her gently again.

"Only thing you could do, Mary." Kori sounded very sad now. "The good news is, none of them seemed to be suffering any ill effects besides being out of control."

"Isn't that _enough?_" Mary demanded, irate.

"Yes." Kori said with a sigh. "But…" She tapped the girl's arm with a hand. "If we free them, they shouldn't have any ill effects. Or no ill effects that the healers here cannot treat." The Prime did not comment as he followed the red pipes on the wall, illuminating the spots he couldn't see in the dim light with his hand light. That was true. If none of them injured themselves chasing the pair of warframes. If none of them suffered a fall, heart attack or stroke. If…

"She didn't know me." Mary said weakly, burrowing into Kori's arms. "She didn't _know_ me."

"I don't know what is happening, Mary." Kori said gently. "But we are here. And we will do what we can, okay?" Mary nodded and curled up tighter. Then she stopped stock still as the Prime's light showed an access. "Oh, you have got to be _kidding_… _Lou!_" She snapped.

The signs over the access point were marked 'Incinerator'. It led down into darkness.

"That is my front door." Lou said with a snap from a hidden speaker. "Take it or no."

"If you think I am dropping a child in there, Lou, you can think _again_!" Kori snapped, her ire up. "I guess I will just go rip out as many of those boxes as I can find."

"It is offline!" Lou protested. "This whole section of the waste reclamation system is."

"If this is a plan to kill us…" Kori snapped, but paused as the Prime held up a hand. "What?" She went still as he is Iron Skin activated. "You have _got_ to be kidding! If he activates that thing…"

"If he is with them, they don't want me dead." The Rhino said quietly as he moved to stand at the opening. "If he _isn't_? Then we can use him. If he _is_ lying, better a Warrior to take point." Kori bowed her head and he threw himself into the shaft.

The fall was uneventful. It was the landing that really, really stank. Literally. He landed in a deep puddle of nastiness. As Lou had said, the incinerator was offline. Indeed, the door had been wedged open, the safety interlocks preventing the system from even starting in such a case.

"Well…" The Prime said as he strode toward the door. "He wasn't lying. Mind that first step though." A shriek of fear mixed with exhilaration heralded Kori's landing with the girl in hand.

"Ewww… Stinks…" Mary said weakly as Kori landed, cushioning the girl in her arms. "What _is_ this…?"

"Refuse."


	10. Chapter 10

**Theories**

"What a wonderful smell you have discovered…" Mary was holding her nose as she tried not to move. The piles of…stuff were everywhere in the small chamber. Not all of it was junk, but a lot of it was. Computer parts, boxes of rations, water packages… All kinds and sorts of stuff. All lying in haphazard seeming piles. She paused and reached out for something with her freehand. "Is this…?"

"Don't _touch_ that!" The resident of this odd refuge said sharply, batting the girl's hand away from the small device. He retreated a bit, spraying his hand with something from a container. It wouldn't have been so odd… if his entire body hadn't been covered by some kind of shiny silver material that crinkled as he moved. Even his eyes were covered.

"Touch her again and I will hurt you, Lou." Kori's voice was calm, but her body language was anything but.

"We have enough problems without fighting amongst ourselves." The Rhino Prime was stuck somewhere between resignation and amusement. This situation was just… "If you have access to the surveillance feeds, now would be a good time to try it."

"I um… don't… exactly." The odd silver covered Tenno said with a wince.

"You _don't_?" Kori's voice –impossibly- got flatter. "Then we dropped in here and wasted our time for _nothing_."

"Hey!" Lou puffed up, affronted. "I didn't say I had access. You assumed I did. I don't. But I can get it."

"_Sure_ you can." Sarcasm dropped from the Nyx's voice. She pulled Mary close as the girl retreated a bit from the odd silver clad form. "You are such an exemplar of technology I am sure you can access anything with the flick of a switch."

"Oh ye of little faith." Lou retorted and hit a control. Something shifted on the wall and Mary gave a squeak that faded as Kori hugged her gently. Something was moving, something that ran from floor to ceiling. "Watch."

"Watch _what_?" Kori was, if anything, even more exasperated now. The Rhino glanced at her and shook his head, nodding to the petrified girl and the Nyx relaxed a bit. Lou hit another control and a screen activated on the far wall, but all it showed was black. "Oh, a blank screen? Nice." If anything, her sarcasm level increased.

"Watch and learn." The conspiracy theorist said with a snarl and the screen lit up. It showed… the inside of a room with many monitor screens. A security center!

"What the hell?" The Rhino said for everyone, staring at the screen. "You can see what is on the monitors? But if you have a connection…" Lou snorted and shook his head.

"No powered connections." Lou sounded smug now. "That screen is reading the image from a mirror. One that is being fed an image from another mirror."

"A _periscope_?" Kori asked, incredulous. "You build a…" She paused and looked at Mary who was staring at the screen, entranced. "You built a _periscope_ to spy on the security center?" The Rhino started to chuckle and Kori just shook her head. "Of all the _hair-brained_ ideas…"

"It works." Lou snapped, hitting a control. The screen turned and showed a set of monitors. "No one home."

"Either they are all out looking for us or…" The Rhino stopped in mid word as the screen showed something odd. "_Or_ they are _congregating_." A host of Tenno in robes and body suits were milling around in a large room, obviously waiting for something. "Do you have sound?"

"Maybe." Lou said with a sigh. "Never tested that, but…" He hit another control and suddenly, the sound of shuffling feet came through. "Yes!" He crowed. "Score one for old tech! Unhackable and untraceable!"

"Any tech can be traced." Kori said sternly.

"Not this, sister." Lou had precious little respect in his voice and Kori shook her head, pulling Mary away from where the girl had leaned just a little too close to a pile of stuff that slid and fell with a crash. "Oh dang it!" Lou nearly screamed. "Look what you did!" Mary recoiled and started to cry, Kori just swept her up and held her, glaring at the silver garbed Tenno. He jumped up and started to pile the stuff back up, muttering curses, only to pause as Kori growled.

"Kid present. Watch the language." Kori's tone was mild, but the conspiracy theorist jerked back. He started to speak, but Kori just shook her head. "You don't want me angry with you, Lou. You don't."

"Everybody calm down." The Rhino said mildly, but placed himself between the silver clad fringe job and the irate Nyx. "We are all stressed. But fighting amongst ourselves won't help." He repeated. The Nyx did not move but after a moment, the silver clad form sat again, his 'armor' crinkling. The Prime shook his head. "What do you know about me?"

"What?" Lou asked, momentarily taken aback.

"Come on." The Prime said with a snort. "A strange Tenno shows up and all hell breaks loose? What kind of conspiracy theorist _are_ you if you didn't do _some_ kind of research when it all went crazy?"

"Ah…" Lou swallowed hard and shook his head. "I blamed the Lotus."

"_Big_ surprise." Kori's words were –almost- under her voice. The Prime shook his head at her but focused on Lou who shrugged. "And _then_?" She demanded, setting Mary down when the girl indicated she wanted to stand.

"I looked for records on the First like the message boards said before the people stopped posting." Lou said with a sigh. "Not much available."

"I don't think I am the First Rhino." The Prime said with a sigh. "No one believes me, but I don't think that is right. So… Another tack. What do you know about schisms in the ranks of the First Tenno?" Lou spun in place, his entire posture one of amazement. "I am serious."

"Schisms?" Lou sounded scared for a moment. Mary was staring at the Prime as if he had grown another head. "In the ranks of the First?" Lou shook his head. "No one ever said anything about such things."

"They wouldn't." The Prime shrugged. "Would they want it advertised?"

"No." Lou admitted. "What makes you think there was one?"

"A hunch." The Prime said quietly. Kori jerked but did not speak. "Nothing about this is ringing any bells with me. Nothing. So… Either my memory has been altered, or…"

"Or the records have been." Lou sounded cautious now. Cautious but intrigued. "You say these are Orokin nanobots?"

"So I heard a cyberlancer say." The Prime corrected him mildly. "He should know, wouldn't you think?"

"Maybe." Lou turned to a computer set up nearby and started typing fast. "Maybe not. Nobody's perfect." A screen on another wall lit up with information that scrolled quickly. "Let's see…"

Mary tugged on Kori's hand for a moment and the Nyx bent down so the girl could whisper to where the ear would be on a human. Kori nodded and spoke.

"You have a bathroom, Lou?" The Nyx sounded… well, she didn't sound upset. But from her tone, if he didn't he might find a girl seized mess in a corner of his floor. Which wasn't that large. Lou froze and then waved to one side where a small door was slightly visible. Kori led the girl there and exclaimed. "Lou!"

"What?" The cyber sleuthing nut job asked sourly.

"When was the last time you _cleaned_ this?" Kori sounded scandalized. Lou shrugged and she shook her head. "Fine. Don't touch _anything_ with your bare hands, Mary." Mary looked slightly green but entered the room and shut the door. "Disgusting… Just disgusting. Karl would make you clean it with a _toothbrush_."

"Then it is a good thing the big lunk isn't here." Lou said mildly. "This may take a while…" He said while scanning data faster than normal humans could read.

"Show me how to pan and zoom the periscope." The Prime said quietly. "I'll check out what can be seen in the security center." A couple of gestures later, he was watching the screen, his finger on a ball mechanism that made the view shift. "Why no guards?" He mused.

"All out looking for us?" Kori asked quietly. "Or some kind of trap?" The door opened and Mary stepped out of the facilities, her face very green. She was shaking her head. Kori leaned in, grabbed some paper… something and handed it to the girl who wiped her hands off before tossing the things in and shutting the door quickly. Both females relaxed little once the door was closed.

"They don't know about that. I keep it concealed until I need it." Lou said absently, still scrolling fast through reams of data. "Whoa…" All eyes turned at the recluse's quiet word.

"What?" The Prime asked, stepping closer carefully.

"During the War…" Lou read off the screen. "Despite several localized successes, the Orokin were pushed inexorably back. Twenty five years after the first recorded skirmishes, the Sentients had pushed past Mars and were gathering to assault Earth. The Orokin Emperor were to the Tenno to ask for assistance and was rebuffed." He paused. "Rebuffed? Why the hell?"

"The First were commanded to guard against the return of the Technocyte Virus." The Prime said evenly. "Nothing in that about fighting anyone else." Kori looked at the Prime but he shook his head. Later. Maybe he would tell her what Stalker had said later. Maybe.

"Maybe." Lou didn't sound convinced. "This…says that the Emperor prevailed… But not how or in what. A few weeks after, the first non-Prime warframes were seen in action." He stared at the screen. "What the hell? Redacted?" He hit a few keys, but then shook his head. "This whole set of documents has dates, but no other information. Everything has been redacted. The Lotus at work I bet."

"What is 'redacted'?" Mary asked into the silence that fell.

"Redacted means that someone went through and obscured or removed entire parts of the text from the documents." The Prime said, uneasy.

"Why would they do that?" Mary asked, clearly not as worried as the others, but picking up on their distress.

"To keep a secret." Lou said softly. "Or to keep many secrets. The Lotus does it all the time." Mary stuck her tongue out at him and he scoffed. "Don't stick that out unless…" He trailed off as Kori growled.

"You finish that sentence and I will hurt you." Kori's words were not a threat. No, a promise. The Prime sighed.

"Children…" He wasn't talking to Mary. "So… No information?" The Rhino asked with a shrug.

"No…" Lou said quietly. "And yes…"

"Which?" Kori demanded.

"There is no information on what the Emperor did." Lou stared at the screen and then he started typing again. "And… Nothing on where the new warframes came from."

"Maybe like Will?" Kori asked softly. "He sought us out. Became Tenno through skill and perseverance."

"Maybe." Lou didn't sound convinced. "This was… The middle of the war, so… it is possible. He was what? A teenager when he joined?"

"When I found him." Kori said quietly. The other three turned to look at her and she sighed. "I don't remember a lot, but I do remember that. He was… determined." She said with a soft, sad chuckle.

"But…" Lou shook his head, his foil headgear crackling again. "There is _no_ record of Tenno outside of the Citadel prior to that." Both the Prime and Kori stiffened. He turned the screen so they could see. "See for yourselves if you don't believe me."

"That is impossible." Kori said sharply. "We came from _somewhere!_ Those poor souls who were changed by the Void?"

"We may not like where this leads us." The Rhino Prime said quietly but Kori and Lou didn't seem to hear him. Mary did and she looked worried.

"Let me see… Deep storage records…" Lou said after a few more taps. "I never could get in here when the security guys were on duty. Too many safeguards. But with them gone, it's child's play. Let's see… I…" The conspiracy theorist suddenly froze in his chair, staring at the screen. "No…"

"What?" Kori demanded, but Lou didn't move. "Lou?" The Prime stepped forward, careful of the haphazardly piled junk and looked over the hacker's shoulder. What he saw made him inhale sharply.

'Tenno Emulation Project Phase Two.'

"Oh my god…" The Prime said slowly. "Lou…" He laid a hand on the hacker shoulder and Lou jumped. "What _is_ this?"

"I don't know." For the first time since the trio of castaways had found their way to his lair. Lou sounded completely flummoxed. "It's referencing something in the deep archives. The secure portions. The parts that are only accessible in person." He shook his head. "The only way in is with a proper key. Anyone trying to hack in or break in… well… It isn't pretty." His screen suddenly fuzzed and a familiar face stared out at him from it. "Ahhh! _No!_" Lou screamed as the Lotus stared at him.

"Cease this line of inquiry, Tenno." The Lotus said. Was she sad? "The only thing that lies on this path is pain."

"I thought you cut coms." The Prime said softly. Lou was actually gibbering as he retreated into a corner, pulling something shiny over himself.

"I did." The Lotus replied. "Mavri is alive." Kori and the Prime exhaled sharply and the Lotus nodded a fraction. "He is hurt very badly, but alive. I believe this is a trap for you."

"That changes nothing." Kori said quietly. "If Mavri _is_ alive, we have a duty to him. A brother in need. We cannot ignore him."

"I agree." The Prime said with a nod. "Will you help?" He asked the Lotus.

"You haven't changed. Always the needs of the many over your own." The Lotus was _definitely_ sad now. "Please, I beg you Tenno, do not pursue this line of inquiry. Save Mavri and we can stop the nanobots on the colony. But you do _not_ want to know, Tenno." Was she _begging_?

"Probably not." The Prime agreed. "But the truth is out there, Lotus. It will come out sooner or later. The more horrific it is, the worse the reaction will be." He bowed his head. "For now. Mavri. Do you know where he is?"

"He is in the medical wards, on life support." The Lotus said softly. "He was stuck in the skull by a blunt object. For now, he is uninfected by the nanobots."

"Can you reprogram them?" Kori asked.

"No." the Lotus said quietly. "They are preprogrammed dedicated systems. Their systems are designed to counter any hacking attempts. I could brute force through and disable them that way, but it would cause irreparable harm to the hosts." Mary gave a cry and the Lotus nodded. "I will not unless there is no other choice."

"Why are they calling me 'Leader'?" The Rhino Prime demanded. "And what did they mean when they said they wanted to 'cleanse' Kori?"

"I cannot be certain." The Lotus replied. "But I believe the nanobots were intended to build you a base of support." The Prime staggered as if struck and the Lotus nodded. "By who, or even _when_ they were programmed, I cannot say. As for cleansing Kori? Your guess is as good as mine."

"A base of support?" The Rhino asked, deeply concerned. "Could _I_ have done this?"

"You _could_ have." The Lotus replied, making a leaden ball form in his stomach. "But you would not have."

"People change, Lotus." The Rhino said sourly.

"You would not have." The Lotus said gently. She sighed and her tone turned resigned. "Lou… Stop _cowering_. That emergency blanket doesn't stop any signals at _all_."

"Leave me _be_!" The conspiracy theorist did not move from under his blanket. "Go _away_!" He demanded.

"Whatever." The disapproval in the Lotus's voice was patent. "You can't _hide_ from me, Lou."

"Go _away_!" Lou snapped. Mary stared from the screen to the cowering recluse and back.

"You are scaring him." Mary said sternly.

"No, Mary." The Lotus' voice turned sad again. "He is scaring _himself_. I cannot stop being what I am. I cannot stop caring for my charges any more than _you_ can stop loving your mother." Mary swallowed hard and the Lotus smiled at her. "Be brave Tenno. If it can be done, Kori and Richard will do it. Even if it _cannot_ be done, I bet they will find a way." Her smile turned into an urchinlike grin. "After all, that is what Tenno do best. The _impossible_." She nodded at Mary and then the screen went black.

"Wow." Mary said softly. "That was… way cool." She said with a grin.

"The enemy knows where I am…" Lou moaned from under his odd tarp like thing. "Doomed… I am _doomed_."

"He is going to be useless." Kori said with a grunt. "Let's get out of here."

"Um…" The Rhino shook his head. "Mary, do you know how to get to the Medical section from here?" Mary shook her head and then pulled free of Kori and stepped to where Lou was cowering.

"She didn't mean to scare you." Mary said quietly. "She needs our help."

"Go away!" Lou snapped. "Just go away!"

"No." Mary replied. "These Tenno need directions on how to get to Medical. You know how. They need you to show them."

"You don't _understand_!" Lou nearly screamed.

"About _monsters_?" Mary said with a snort. "Oh, I understand _that_ just fine. Too bad your mom never shot yours."

"_Shot?_" The incredulous word came from three voices and Lou peeked out from under his tarp.

"Oh yeah." Mary said with a wide smile. "Monster versus _mother_? Monsters lose every time. She took a Lato and shot the closet three times for me." She smiled at the incredulous snorts from the two warframed Tenno. "She got in trouble, but no monsters since."

"Remind me never to make your mom mad at _me_…" Lou said weakly as he pulled away from the wall. "Okay… To get to Medical, you need to…"

No one noticed a tiny, nearly microscopic thing jump from the base of the periscope and land on Mary's bare foot. She didn't react. Not that she _could_ after the thousands of nanobots that had propelled themselves across the small open space entered her bloodstream.


	11. Chapter 11

**Leadership**

"I don't like leaving Mary there." Kori said quietly. "That Tenno is…" She shook her head.

"Not socially adept." The Prime agreed. "He won't hurt her. You know that."

Not after the _very_ grisly threats that Kori had spoken as they were leaving. He had half expected Mary to react badly, but the girl had just smiled and wished them a good journey. Something about that bothered the Rhino, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. She had hugged Kori and stepped back readily enough. Now, they were mobile. They were not heading straight for Medical. Neither wanted to escalate things, but the security forces in particular were armed, so they were detouring by the docking bays to 'visit' the armory instead. They were coming to the end of the maintenance ducts though. From here on, they would be exposed. From what they had determined, the nanobots shared all information between all of the infected people, so if one saw them, all would. So… Sneaky was the way. Fortunately, Lou had possessed more than a few tricks and had been 'persuaded' to share a few. Kori stopped at the hatch and it slid partly open. She slid a pipe out into the open and stared at the end, rotating it around.

"Clear." Kori said, but she sounded unsure.

"Problem?" The Prime asked softly, on alert for anything.

"I don't know." Kori mused. "We saw guards on patrol here on the security cams. But there is no one here now."

"Something changed." The Prime didn't like this, but they were committed. "No choice. Be ready." He moved to the hatch and it slid fully open. He stepped out. His power levels were low, but he had enough for another Iron Skin if needed. Not much beyond that, mind you, but for that sure. He looked right and left, up and down. "Nothing."

"This doesn't feel right." Kori said as she eased out after him.

They started off for the armory. Visiting Tenno left their weapons in the armory since the security forces frowned on fully armed Warriors striding around the colony. Warframes were bad enough, but Warriors were usually well disciplined about using powers. But almost to a Tenno, the Warriors who had survived the Collapse reached for weapons as their first response in almost any situation.

"No it doesn't." The Prime agreed. "But we don't have a choice, do we? No matter what else, we need to get to Mavri."

"Preferably not stepping over a couple hundred bodies in the process." Kori sounded calm, but her posture was tense as they walked carefully towards the door helpfully marked 'Armory' and 'Leave all Weapons'. "No noise. No movement. This stinks."

"Yeah." The Prime agreed. "But how could they have known? You think Lou was compromised?"

"I don't know." Kori moved to the door and flattened herself to one side. The Rhino stepped up and hit the control. But the room that showed just beyond the door was empty. "This is…"

"Some kind of setup." The Rhino agreed, looking around the small room. Weapons hung on racks and in lockers. All the racks and lockers hung open. Inviting. "Too blatant. Obvious trap." He shook his head and stepped back. "Medical?"

"Yeah." Kori sounded very uneasy. "I didn't like the idea of gunning down non-combatants, but I dislike the idea of mind controlling them more." The door hissed shut behind them as they walked slowly and cautiously towards the hall that Lou had promised led to Medical. Nothing happened, but Kori tensed further. "This feels…" She swallowed hard as the door ahead of them opened. Neither of them was anywhere near the sensors for it. "You gotta be kidding…"

"Apparently, we are being invited." The Rhino said mildly. "Shall we?"

"Might as well." Kori said with a long suffering sigh. "I just hope I don't get shot or stabbed this time."

"Not if I can help it." The Rhino promised her and stepped in front. He strode to the door and shook his head. "Nothing. A little too quiet though."

"I do _not_ like this." Kori said with a snarl as she followed him into the hall and the door shut behind them. From the click, it locked. "What are we, rats in a maze?"

"Whoever is pulling the strings here better be careful or they might find out how sharp these 'rats' teeth are." The Rhino said with a snort as they walked. "Where is everybody?" He demanded as they approached a door marked 'Medical Ward'. The door opened before they got there and a voice called out to them.

"Please don't do anything hasty." The female voice sounded… familiar to the Rhino. "We are not enemies." The two Tenno moved to the door and peered in.

Inside the door, alone female stood. In form, she was human. But… not. She wore a long white gown and she smiled a bit sadly as she saw the two Tenno. Something about her was off. Then the Rhino placed it. She was cloaked in a hologram. A Tenno. Probably in a warframe.

"Hello, Richard, Kori." The woman said quietly. "This is not how I wanted to meet." She said with a shake of her head. "Damn, those Orokin idiots made a right mess of things." Neither Tenno moved and the woman sighed. "I am remiss… My name is Rachel." She held up empty hands. "We are not enemies."

"Did you send the Ash Prime after Kori?" The Rhino demanded.

"Ah…" The woman looked chagrinned now. "Nik was always a bit excitable… What did he _do?_" She sounded resigned now.

"He tried to kill me twice." Kori tone was frosty and who could blame her. The strange woman slumped a bit. "And then he laughed and _exploded_!"

"He _what?_" Either this woman was an incredible actress, or she was really shocked by the news. At this particular moment, the Rhino wasn't making a bet either way. "Was anyone _else_ hurt?" She begged.

"What do you care?" Kori demanded. "You have taken control of this colony. You have attacked me and my friends. What do you care if people get hurt or killed?"

"I understand your anger." Rachel said sadly. "Better than you would ever believe. Aside from Nik, did anyone else die?" Her voice held entreaty now.

"Barely not." Kori snapped. "Getting shot with a Boltor and stabbed by a Skana is not fun." The woman stared at her and then muttered something that sounded like 'what a moron!' "Pardon me?" Kori sounded even more irate now.

"Sorry, not you." Rachel said quietly. "Nik. He was… a bit unstable. We all knew that. But… He was supposed to make _contact_, not _shoot_ people!" She shook her head. "I mean… none of us ever expected to see you again, Richard. Let alone suddenly receive signals from the nanobot colony that we subverted when they took you."

"You did this." The Rhino's voice was flat.

"Yes." Rachel admitted. But then she shook her head. "But… This isn't what you think! This wasn't what they were supposed to do! Keep you alive, set you up a base of operations if needed, but under _your_ control! Something went wrong. We don't know what." She sighed. "We need to find out and fix it. Preferably before any more harm is done."

"You are lying." Kori said suddenly. "Why are you lying to us?" She demanded.

"I am not." Rachel remained calm. "I am not telling you the whole truth. Would you?" She looked pointedly at Kori who did not waver in her glare. "No one is dead, Kori. We can repair the damage."

"Can you?" Kori asked flatly. The Rhino saw movement and spun in place, but froze. Mary stood there, her face beaming, but… empty. Other noncombatant Tenno blocked the hall behind them now and yet more were filling the hall in the other direction. Kori froze as well. "You B****."

"She is not hurt." Rachel said gently. "She is asleep. Her fear was strong, but we soothed it. We have not hurt her and we will not. Or any of them." Her tone was firm now. "We are not monsters. We need information. That is all. Gathering the information is time consuming, but not harmful or painful. We have not hurt anybody."

"Mavri?" The Rhino's tone was, if anything, even more flat.

"That wasn't us." The strange woman, Tenno, whatever she was, said quietly. "A mob is only as smart as it's stupidest member and one of them hit him. Once we had control of the medical personnel, we brought him here to be tended, but…" She shrugged. "There are limits to what we can do here."

"Remote control is a pain, isn't it?" the Rhino sounded… resigned now. Kori looked at him and he made a small head gesture toward the woman. Kori nodded fractionally.

"Don't do anything hasty, Richard!" The woman begged him. "We can help you. You and Kori both! Don't make us hurt you!"

"So many lies." The Rhino said slowly. "So many wheels inside of wheels. The Orokin, you…" He shook his head. "What is the Tenno Emulation Project?" The woman wrung her hands.

"What do you know about that?" Rachel demanded. "What do you remember?"

"I don't remember anything." The Rhino said with a snarl. "But you are lying to us and have taken control of hundreds of people. You are _not_ inspiring trust."

"I…" Rachel bowed her head. "Not here. I cannot explain here. Come with me, Richard." She begged. "You and Kori both will be welcomed. Mavri can be tended. Please." She was crying as the Rhino shook his head. "Richard, please, for the love of God!"

"If I _was_ your leader…" Richard said slowly. "Then what I led was _evil_." Rachel gasped at his cold words. "I will not be party to this. Not now. Not _ever_. Move. We are taking Mavri and leaving."

"I…" Rachel swallowed hard. "I can't let you do that, Richard. I am sorry. But I cannot let you go. Not now. Not after all of this. We are so close. So close to the link. Don't resist. Please."

"Well…" The Prime shook his head. "That proves _you_ don't know me." Rachel went still and he chuckled mirthlessly. "You almost had me fooled there, darling. Almost." Rachel's face went pale. "Move. Now." His Iron Skin activated and he took a step.

"Actually I do." Rachel said between her tears. "Now." A burst of energy slammed into the Rhino from the side and his Iron Skin…faded. "Stand down, Richard. We have deactivated your powers. You too Kori. Stand down." Rachel begged.

"Powers do not make a Tenno." Kori said quietly as she moved to stand by the Rhino. "Perhaps you can overwhelm us with numbers. Perhaps you can use your suborned security forces to stun or something. But Tenno do not quit!" Rachel smiled a bit fondly at her and Kori snarled. "What?"

"You ape the mannerisms so well…" Rachel sounded both sad and proud now. "I guess… I guess it wasn't all for naught. Despite everything."

"What the hell are you-" Kori broke off in midword and went stiff.

"Kori!" the Rhino caught the suddenly limp Nyx as she fell. "What have you _done?_"

"She was about to attack." Rachel said calmly. "We truly don't want to hurt her. Or you. But… You will fight. It is what you do, Richard." She shook her head. "The nanobots won't work on you. So…"

A flash of silver was his only warning…

* * *

><p><em>A dozen huge metal hulled machines ground across the landscape…<em>

_A group of ponies in oddly royal gowns rode, one on each machine, guiding and controlling them…_

_A…dream… He was dreaming. He had to…_

"Damn it, Richard!" Rachel's voice came from far away and was sour beyond belief. "I know you are stubborn, but sheesh…" The Rhino woke to find himself lying on something that moved underneath him. He tried to move and couldn't. Golden bands circled his wrists and ankles and when he tried to raise his head, it wouldn't move either. Rachel came into view, her face severe. "Richard, calm down. No one is hurt and no one _will_ be if you stay calm."

"Liar." Richard managed to grate out. "What have you done to Kori?" Rachel sighed and leaned down, turning his head so he saw the Nyx warframe lying on… an Orokin style hover gurney. She didn't move. "What did you _do_?"

"We put her to sleep. That is all." Rachel said sourly. "Richard, we are going to take you home. We can help you there. We can do everything we need to, help Mavri and do all the research we need there. When that is done, Kori and the others will come back with no memory of what happened."

"What are you trying to do?" The Rhino demanded, trying his bonds, but for all their apparent fragileness, none of his extremities moved a millimeter. "_Confuse_ me to death?"

"No." Rachel said sadly. "There is enough death and destruction in the universe as it is, Richard. You taught us to find better ways. We _did_."

"I… taught… you…?" The Prime was struggling for all he was worth as the gurney he was on started to move. "Right."

"I don't expect you to believe, Richard." Rachel said with a sigh. "We will be able to convince you. But not here. We don't have a lot of time. Ships are on approach."

"You better pray you get out of here before Nikis gets here." The Prime swallowed as gold flashed nearby. A portal! His heart lurched as he saw Mary standing with a man and woman. All looked calm. "Taking _kids_ now?" the Rhino snapped.

"No." Rachel said softly. "We are taking entire family units. We will not separate mothers from daughters and fathers from sons just for our research. They will be well cared for."

"You make them sound like _pets!_" The Prime wasn't sure if he should be more insulted or appalled.

"Not pets." Rachel was still quiet. "They are sentient beings. But they _can_ be test subjects. We have ethical obligations to maintain, Richard. We will not harm them."

"And I should believe you… _why?_" The Prime snapped.

"You taught us well, Richard." Rachel sounded very sad for a moment. "You and Bellina both."

"I am not the First Rhino." The Prime nearly screamed. But…Rachel nodded.

"You gave up the title of 'Rhino' long before you separated us from Orokin." The woman said softly. "After you found out what the Orokin were doing to the shades of our kin."

"What?" the Prime demanded.

"It's a long story, Richard." Rachel said sadly. "And I have a lot of work to do. We will talk later. Try to rest. Please? Bellina is waiting for you. She has been waiting… so long…" She stepped away and there was another flash of gold.

"Damn you." The Rhino said as the gurney moved forward and Mary stepped up beside it, her face wooden. The woman beside her shared some of Mary's features and was likely Mary's mother. The man? He wasn't sure. "Mary…" He pleaded, not hoping for any reply, but… she did.

"I am… here." Mary's voice was slow and halting. "It is… I am…"

"Have they hurt you?" The Rhino demanded, still struggling fruitlessly.

"No." Mary's tone was odd. Calm, but… "I am sorry… I couldn't stop them." A single tear fell from her eye. "I didn't mean to betray you."

"It's okay, Mary." The Prime said quickly. "Don't cry. You didn't. It wasn't you. They took control. Is Lou okay?"

"He ran." Mary's face was working now. "I… Oh… Feel…weird." The Rhino could only stare as blood started to trickle from her nose.

"Mary!" The Rhino screamed. "Help!" He called as she wilted.

"What the?" Rachel's voice came from somewhere and the woman hurried into view. "No!" She cried as Mary went limp. She caught the girl, but… "What did you _do_?" She demanded of the Rhino.

"I asked her if she was okay!" The Rhino snapped. "No harm, my _ass_!"

"This… shouldn't be happening." The woman said weakly. A golden scanner appeared in her hand and whirred. "Oh my god…Cerebral hemorrhage!" She raised her voice. "_Expedite these! Medical emergency!_" The gurney slid forward and another white garbbed form hurried up. The man took Mary from Rachel and ran off with her, the two older Tenno following silently. Rachel stared after them, obviously distressed. "I think we are in time. I hope we are."

"Sure." The Rhino snapped. "Kill a few experimental animals and go get some more."

"It is not like that!" Rachel snapped. "We are doing research, non-harmful research. Non-invasive, non- harmful." The Prime scoffed and Rachel sighed. "I don't expect you to believe me. But we have time. If we are clear before the approaching ships get here, we should be… Oh no…"

The Rhino felt hope flare as a dark form appeared nearby. The Nekros warframe stood alone. But he didn't need any backup, did he.

"Nikis…" Rachel sounded both stunned and scared. The Rhino went still. Why wasn't Nikis drawing his pistols? Why was he… standing as if _resigned_?

"You need to get lost." Nikis said quietly. "Now."

"We can't _leave_ you!" Rachel retorted. "They will _know_!"

"What will be, will be. I am alone, little Rachel." Nikis said sadly. "I have been since Dust… Since Dustin was taken and hurt. But I abide by my oaths. I have and I _will_."

"_Little_… Rachel…?" The Rhino managed to say through the shock that pummeled him. These two... _knew_ each other?

"I was there when she was born. You and I stood as godparents, Richard." Nikis said dryly. "She said I can call her what I want."

"I don't mind… Uncle Nikis." Rachel said with fondness in her voice. "But we… We can't _leave_ you. You know what they will do."

"Nothing can change that now, darling." Nikis stepped close to Rachel and held up a hand. It stroked her cheek as tears started to fall. "All is not lost, Rachel. Trust. It will be okay." He turned to where the Prime lay stunned speechless. "I can tell you now. The schism must end, and _you_ are the one to do it, Richard. Just… keep an open mind. They _do_ mean well."

"Me?" The Rhino felt faint.

"That is what leaders _do_." Nikis said firmly. "They lead." The portal flashed again and this time, the Prime felt himself stilling into immobility as the field grabbed him…


	12. Chapter 12

**Returning**

The sheer shock of seeing the hard-bitten Tenno gunfighter not just collaborating with the odd beings who had taken control of the colony, but _helping_ them, calling one 'darling' with heartfelt fondness, had rocked the Prime to his core. The golden field released him and movement appeared all around.

"Get them to the Infirmary." A strong male voice said as the gurney underneath the Prime started moving again. "We have the others. The girl is a mess, but we were in time."

"Thank the ancestors." Rachel sounded so very sad. "I was scared we would lose her."

"You okay, Rachel?" The male voice asked.

"No." The odd female replied. "Nikis showed himself." A gasp went up all around. "They will know. But… he wouldn't come." Her voice was abject now.

"Rachel." The male voice was gentle now. "You of all people know that _nothing_ can sway that old fart from his chosen course of action. And anyone who tries…" He gulped. "Say what you will about the False, they are generally not stupid. Crossing that gunfighter is stupid."

"Doesn't make it any easier, Carlos." Rachel said sadly. "But… it is done. We clear?"

"No traces on our portal. No signs of anyone following us." Another voice called. "We are clear."

"Okay." Rachel gave a sigh and then she was in Richard's line of sight again. "The Nyx is asleep, but Richard is awake. Don't take any chances. He doesn't remember us."

"What did those Orokin _scum_ do?" The male –Carlos- bit out.

"We don't know." Rachel shook herself. "Richard, please. Let us work. We won't hurt you, or Kori."

"Right." Richard said with a snap. "Like the _Ash_ didn't hurt her? Getting shot and stabbed doesn't hurt at _all_, does it?"

"We don't _know_ what happened, Richard!" Rachel snapped right back. "Nik was… always a bit bent. But that was extreme." The male voice gave a gasp and Rachel sighed. "Nik is dead. He attacked the Nyx, tried to _kill_ her."

A chorus of 'In the name of the First…' 'Why?' 'What the-?' 'You are kidding…' went around the room. Rachel just shook her head.

"We don't know what happened." Rachel laid a gentle hand on the Prime's arm. "We need to find out. But for now… Welcome home, Richard." He just glared at her and she sighed. "We will make it as comfortable for you as we can. But we have to protect ourselves too." The Prime did not reply and she sighed again. "Get him to the infirmary. Bellina will want to see him. Take no chances."

"Yes, Ma'am." Carlos replied evenly. The gurney moved again and the voice followed. "Wow… it really is you. We had almost given up hope." Richard did not reply and the man laughed. "Still silent and stoic, huh? You used to act that way to make us think. Guess some things never change." A hum sounded and the gurney passed through a door. "Doc?"

"Damn…" A male voice sounded and another white garbed form appeared in the Prime's vision. "It really _is_ him."

"Don't release him." Carlos warned. "He doesn't remember us."

"Well, crap." The doctor said mildly. The medic stepped close and something touched the Rhino on the skull. He was suddenly… calm. Not dazed, not unaware, but…calm. "There. Gentler than a stunner."

"When he gets loose, I don't want to be _anywhere_ in the area." Carlos commented. "The girl?"

"Hopefully, we can explain before that." The doc replied, somewhat uneasily. "The little girl is in surgery. She should make a full recovery, but we had to flush the nanites."

"Keep her sedated?" The other sounded worried now.

"We can't." The doc replied. "Too much chance for complications. We can keep her controlled…"

"You put a collar on her and Rachel will have your ass!" Carlos said with a snarl. "And the rest of us will be right behind her. She is a _kid_!"

"A kid of the False." The doctor said with a sigh. "And yes… I agree. But what else can we do? Having a little girl running around here would not be the best idea, would it?"

"Geez…" Carlos groaned. "No, but… We need to think of something. They are not animals. The whole idea was to keep them all asleep until we could send them back."

"Well, we can't keep her asleep or it may hurt her." The doc said with a sigh. "Or worse. Her cranial arteries have been seriously weakened by this. She fought hard. Five years old and a fighter." Pride mixed with worry in his voice now.

"You are overthinking this, Roger." A new voice sounded. Female. Old, but… clear. No weakness sounded in it.

"Milady… I…" The doctor sounded ashamed. "I don't… There are a lot of things here that would be dangerous to her if she got loose."

"Then don't." The female voice said mildly. "Explain what is happening and why. She is a kid. She likely isn't stupid. Is she, Richard?" The voice was moving closer, but he couldn't see the speaker.

"No." Richard managed to get the negative out past whatever was holding him quiescent. The voice… was so familiar it hurt. It hurt so bad. "Who…?"

"You don't remember." The sadness in the voice was so much. It was so powerful that the Prime felt tears threaten. "We knew they would hurt you, but… We had no idea. You told us not to resist, that we were not to kill kin, but…" She was crying. That pulled Richard up, made him try his bonds again. "No, don't struggle." A hand found his. It felt…wrong. Small and soft. But… at the same time, it felt right. "I am sorry, Richard. For everything."

"Don't cry." The Prime said as strongly as he could. Wasn't very strong. "Whatever I did, I did."

"No." The woman said sharply. "You did as your oaths and honor dictated. You had no way of knowing that the Emperor sent a liar to 'negotiate' with us."

"This sounds like a hell of a story." The Prime said quietly.

"It is." The woman said just as quietly. "Honor, duty, loyalty… betrayal, disgrace…" The hand traced up his arm to touch his faceplate. "Oh, Richard…" She was crying again. "After all this… You will be so mad at me…"

"I don't remember you." The Prime said softly. "I… wish I did, but I don't."

"Doc?" The woman begged.

"I will do some scans, Lady Bellina. But…" The doc did not sound hopeful. "You know what they did to their test subjects."

"If we can fix it, we must." The woman called Bellina said with a sigh. "Things are coming to a head. Richard found, Nikis discovered, Nik gone _insane_… I…"

"It is not your fault, Milady." The doctor said gently. "But you need downtime now."

"Can I stay here, doc?" Bellina asked, pleaded. "I won't get in the way."

"Milady… He doesn't believe us." The one called Carlos was not arguing. He was simply facts. "He will try to escape. Even if he isn't trying to hurt you, he could. We cannot lose you, Milady." There was no disguising the fear for her in his voice.

"I am only _one_, Carlos." Bellina said mildly, with just the hint of a sniffle. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. Richard… I… If I ask for you oath to not harm anyone, would you give it?"

"I am a prisoner." The Prime tried for exasperation, but whatever was calming him kept him from it. "Why should I trust?"

"Because you are not a prisoner." The woman said fondly. "You are my husband. You don't remember it and I understand your reluctance. How about this…? We will release you so that you may guard your friends. Kori is… There is something wrong with her. We are trying to ascertain what." The Prime went still and the woman sighed. "We will not harm her. You have my word, Richard. What do you feel when I say that?" She asked.

"I feel…" The Prime sighed deeply. "I think you are to be trusted. But my trust has been abused."

"I know." Bellina said quietly. "And so… Carlos, Doctor, out." This last was a command.

"Milady!" The doctor said sharply.

"Out." Bellina's word was stern and forbidding. "Now." A door hissed and then the lady's voice turned sad. "All this time… I had given up hope. Now… I have it back."

The Prime felt the hand move to his skull. The object on his head was removed. His emotions were free. Then… His limbs were. He sat up slowly and turned to see an old, old woman sitting in a wheeled chair beside the gurney he lay on. She bowed her head.

"I wish I had taken Lynn and the others up on their offer of a warframe now." The woman said, sitting back in her chair, her hands folding in her lap. "I didn't feel worthy of it. Now…" She slumped. "Do what you will with me. My time grows short either way. But trust… is hard to reestablish." The Prime swung his legs off the gurney but then did not move further.

"You would sacrifice yourself for what you believe is right?" The Rhino asked slowly, carefully.

"I had a good role model." Tears were falling again. "The best. I _never_ deserved you. Never." Her voice was abject now. "I tried to do what you would have wanted. It was hard. So hard. I wanted to send the others out immediately to get you back. They begged me to go after you. But you wouldn't have wanted that." She slumped in place. "This is the only argument I have. If it is not enough…" She trailed off as the Rhino reached out and took her hands in his very, very gently.

"It is pretty persuasive." The Rhino said with a gentle chuckle. "I wish I remembered you." His right hand went up to brush the tears from her wrinkled face. "Don't cry. Whatever you did… I don't know if it can fixed, or if it should be. But I don't like seeing you cry."

"You never did." Bellina said sadly. "I can't leave the chair now. It's life support."

"Then I will sit with you." The Rhino said quietly. "But I would like an explanation."

"You are owed that and so much more." Bellina said quietly. "But first…" She turned her chair and hit a pad on the armrest. Two screen slit up on the wall. One showed Kori asleep in a small room. It wasn't –quite- a cell. On the other, Mary lay in what was obvious an ICU, connected to many forms of medical equipment. "Do you wish to see them in person? Neither will wake soon. Both show signs of extreme exhaustion."

"The screen will do. For now." The Rhino said mildly. "Obviously we knew one another."

"We did." Bellina smiled a bit wistfully. "I was a physicist and you were my assistant as well as my husband. We created an odd golden portal. The… horrors beyond it nearly consumed us. If not for the First Tenno and his colleagues, we would have been lost." The Rhino stiffened and she nodded. "You took the name Rhino. You wanted to scare the enemy who took me, who had me under their mind control. You were always stronger than I was."

"Strength comes in all sizes and shapes." The Rhino said gently. "So…"

"So, we had both been changed." Bellina patted his armored forearm. "You externally. Me in my mind. I was… a mess. But the Tenno were kind and gentle. The offered me a warframe, but I did not believe myself worthy of it."

"No one ever does." The Prime said quietly. Bellina smiled fondly at him. "What?"

"You said the exact same thing." Bellina chuckled. "Many times. But I was so stubborn. I am not human anymore. I wasn't after the Chosen had their mitts on me. I age, but very slowly and the damage used to be correctable."

"_Used to be?_" Rhino asked quietly.

"I am wearing out." Bellina said quietly. "Even cloned organs can only stave off total failure for a time. In the case of Tenno medical science, for a long, long time. But not forever."

"Are you sick?" The Rhino asked, concerned.

"No." Bellina grimaced slightly. "They won't let me get sick. Or do anything anymore…" She said sourly. "Age hath it's perks among the Tenno."

"You have been around since Hayden Tenno was the Leader of the Tenno." The Rhino said slowly. "And me as well?"

"Tenno in warframes do not age." Bellina said quietly. "With care, you can literally live forever. Not that the enemies of the Tenno let that happen." Hate sang in her tone now and the Rhino recoiled. "So many friends… lost to hate, to fear, to _stupidity_…" She bowed her head and tears were falling again. "At least… I see you again. That is more than I had hoped or prayed for."

"What happened?" The Rhino asked after a moment. "It was during the war, yes?"

"What happened to you was, yes." Bellina said with a sigh. "But the root of the problem lay far, far before." The Rhino cocked his head and she frowned. "You see… When the Tenno were first founded, we had once cause. Defend humanity from the Technocyte Virus."

"The First's Call." The Rhino agreed. "I remember that. From the Codex."

"And from you and Hayden beating the _snot_ out of too many fools to count who were trying to _play_ with it." Bellina said sourly. "The problem was… After a time, people got the hint. If they toyed with the Virus, they died. People kept doing it all the way up to the Sentient War, but… Not as many. The downside was that the ones who did were generally prepared for Tenno intervention. That is why we lost so many kin…" She bowed her head again. "It took time, but… by the time that Hayden passed and you took over… We had less than two dozen kin here." The Rhino looked at her and she scowled. "The maximum we had on census was a hundred and seven."

"Ouch." The Rhino said with feeling. "So… What happened?"

"There was nothing in the Code that forbade Tenno from leaving the Citadel." Bellina said with a sigh. "Many did. Some left to pursue other careers, some to work as peacekeepers or knights errant in the case of that wacko Rikard. Some went into service with the Orokin Emperors."

"The Royal Guard…" The Rhino mused and Bellina nodded. "So…"

"We kept to ourselves." Bellina said with a shrug. "We were not a secret society, although some painted us as such. The problem was… the Sentients came."

"Yes." The Prime agreed. "I remember… some…"

"Many Tenno wanted to fight." Bellina said with a sigh. "The problem was…"

"The First's command said nothing about fighting a war." The Rhino said with a gulp and Bellina nodded. "What happened?"

"Some left." Bellina bowed her head. "A few of them…survived. Nikis was one of them. His son Dustin was serving as a Caretaker, but Nikis was always a fighter. Anytime, anywhere."

"That old coot is too _stubborn_ to die." The Rhino said with a laugh. But then he sobered. "What did I do?"

"You… found out something that the Orokin had done." Bellina said with a gulp. "No one knew. No one. It was… a hell of a shock." The Rhino looked at her and she sighed. "You have been in virtual worlds, yes?"

"Yes." The Rhino wasn't sure where Bellina was going with this.

"You have seen the shades of our kin." Bellina's words were not a question, but the Rhino nodded anyway. "What if I told you… they were slaves?" The Rhino went totally still and Bellina nodded. "I will… give them the benefit of the doubt. I don't want to. Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they didn't know they were forcing the souls of our kin into slavery. Maybe our kin actually did decide to do it. But no one told us. Not until we had a sorely hurt Tenno return from one of the first skirmishes. She died on the operating table and they could not get her back. But then… a golden shade of her appeared in the middle of the medical bay, _screaming_ for help. Then she vanished."

"Oh my god…" The Rhino said slowly.

"We… didn't know what was happening." Bellina said softly. "So we investigated. What we found… Thousands of shades of our kin. Maybe millions… Enslaved. To act as the guardians for the Orokin afterlife. Their 'Game'." She shook her head. "We um… did not react well."

"What did you do?" The Rhino asked softly.

"We pulled in every Tenno we could contact, which wasn't many." Bellina said quietly. "Then we severed our connections with the Orokin."

"_All_ of them?" The Rhino asked, then shook himself. "Of course… Of course you did… Such a betrayal…"

"The Orokin of course wondered what had happened." Bellina said with a sigh. "They sent emissaries. We asked questions and the emissaries stonewalled us." The Rhino groaned and Bellina nodded. "We threw them out. You and me. We were the leaders. The buck stopped with us and all that. We closed the gates and ignored all communications. We wanted to talk to the Emperor and he didn't want to talk to us."

"And then?"

"Then the Emperor came calling." Bellina's voice held hate now. "Those nanobots that you encountered? We got them from him."

"What did he _do_?" The Rhino begged.

"He sent a double to 'open negotiations'." Bellina said sourly. "What we didn't know was that the double was carrying a small satchel filled with those nanobots. The idea, as best we could determine, was that if Tenno could not be trusted… He would make Tenno who _could_ be."

"You have to be _kidding_ me…" The Rhino breathed, horrified.

"The Tenno Emulation Project." Bellina said softly. "You asked Rachel about it? The Orokin decided to play god and devil at the same time..."


	13. Chapter 13

**Angry Science**

"It seemed like a reasonable thing." Bellina said quietly. "The Emperor wanted to talk, to find out why we had retreated." She sighed deeply. "We were so trusting. So… naïve."

"So… this representative brought with him a bunch of those nanites." The Prime –he still didn't think of himself as Richard- said slowly. "And then?"

"None of us expected an attack." Bellina said sadly. "It had been so long since anyone had dared to attack the Citadel… It seemed improbable in the extreme. But it happened."

"So… You and…" The Rhino said slowly.

"Everyone was affected within minutes." Bellina said sourly. "Say what you will about the Orokin, but they _did_ know how to build tech. We were sedated. Not controlled. But still… When we woke… You were gone."

"They took me?" The Rhino asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah." Bellina said softly. "We figured out what happened very quickly. We found a bunch of the nanites and dissected them. For what it is worth, they were not trying to kill anyone. Mila died as a result of falling. She broke her neck and expired before we woke. She wore an Ember warframe…" Bellina was obviously trying not to cry now. "Such a good kid. Gone. And not in battle. No. Slain by cowards with no chance to fight back."

"They wouldn't have just taken me." The Rhino said slowly, trying to wrap his mind around such a monumental betrayal. "What else did they take?"

"Every design we had." Bellina said with a snarl. "Warframes, weapons, equipment. They hacked our databases and made off with a large chunk of them."

"So the Prime warframes…" The Rhino rubbed his armored forearm reflexively. Bellina smiled and alid her hand on his arm.

"The Prime warframes are the evolution of the original designs. The base designs had been modified quite a bit over the centuries and you shared the improvements." Bellina smiled, suddenly looking younger. "You never slacked on protecting our kin."

"So…" The Rhino said slowly. "They stole the designs for warframes. That wouldn't have done them any good. To use them, you have to…" He paused and gulped. "They _didn't_…" He shook his head savagely. "_Tell_ me they didn't infect people with Virus!"

"They didn't." Bellian reassured him. ""What they did was horrific enough. They took people who had been exposed to the Void. Regular humans." The Rhino winced at that and Bellina nodded. "Without sophisticated shielding and a healthy dose of luck, humans are… twisted by the Void."

"I know." The Rhino agreed. "So… How many?"

"We don't know." Bellina said quietly. "Dozens at the very least. There is… some question as to how… some of them were exposed and for how long." The Rhino looked at her and she shrugged. "They had no shortage of volunteers. There was a war on and they were losing."

"So… They took those unfortunates." The Prime said slowly. "And… what?"

"They made Prime warframes for the first group those people." Bellina made a face. "I guess it is a good thing that prime warframes demanded exotic materials that even Orokin found very scarce. They… streamlined the designs. Dumbed them down. Made them easier to produce."

"So all the warframes that we see now…" The Prime said slowly.

"The Orokin made the first ones." Bellina said with a nod. "The False started to make them quickly."

"_False?_" The Rhino said softly. "They follow the Code, Bellina. Not all well, and not all without stumbles from what I gathered. Are they false because their ancestors were _made_?"

"Ah…" Bellina sighed deeply. "We have called them that since we found out about them." Bellina said with a wince. "Nikis actually brought the word. He was… angry. Angrier than I had ever seen him. Our oath was to protect humanity and humanity abused us."

"Bellina…" The Prime said gently. "A _section_ of humanity abused you… us…" He took her hands in his and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Not all." He shook his head. "Nikis said I need to end this schism. And I think I know where to start." He rose from the bed and moved to kneel by her chair, still holding her hands. "Let go of this hate, Bellina. It suits you ill."

"We tried to get you back." Bellina was crying again. "We hit the place where they had you. Hard and fast. We didn't use lethal force. We used some of the Orokin nanobots to infiltrate the labs. We couldn't get to you. The scientists had you locked down. We put the nanobots in, hoping that they could free you. They couldn't." She was shuddering and the Prime held her gently. "They called us traitors. Said you were a traitor. You weren't." She sobbed into his embrace. "When we wouldn't leave… They started shooting…"

"Oh no…" The Prime shuddered. "How many?"

"We lost four." Bellina said sadly. "All of the human guards died. The remaining humans called the Royal Guard. They came in shooting. I… I don't know how many we…" She slumped a bit into the Rhino's arms. "And you know the worst part? The _absolute_ worst part?"

"Bellina… be calm." The Rhino begged her.

"You didn't want to fight." Bellina swallowed hard. "You _never_ wanted to fight. Hayden trusted you because you never left the Citadel. You were good leader because you wanted the best for us. _All_ of us. You were no coward, but you didn't want to _kill_ people!" The Rhino went still. "The ancient term was… 'conscientious objector'. You didn't think the war was right. You didn't deny others the chance to fight, but you didn't want to. You had your duty. To us. To the Code. It was enough. And they _took it from you_!" This last was a scream.

"Bellina." The Rhino said sternly. "Be calm. Easy…" He held her and she sobbed. Finally, she quieted a bit. "So… How did you get the nanobots into me?"

"We didn't." Bellina said with a small, sad smile. "We put them in your axe. When the Royal Guard drove us away… Well, actually the team retreated when they pushed into their lines, threatened to cut our people off from escape…" She shook her head. "We left your axe. We didn't know if they would give it to you or not. But it was worth a shot." Now her face turned feral. "We returned the Emperor's present to the lab computers too. The whole place went haywire as we fled. We didn't know if you survived or not. Not until we started receiving signals from the nanobots."

"And you took control." The Rhino's voice went flat.

"We didn't." Bellina said earnestly. "We don't know what happened. The nanobots were supposed to be under your control. But… they were not. We received signals about a rebellion in a colony and started to investigate cautiously when the Orokin AI cut coms."

"The Lotus." The Prime mused. "So… You stay out of sight…"

"Since the day we lost you, yes." Bellina said with a shrug. "But now… we are in the open again. They will come."

"And then what?" The Rhino demanded. "Fight?"

"No." Bellina said quietly. "if they attack, we are going to seal the door."

"Seal the…?" The Rhino didn't understand why that sent a bolt of fear through him. "What do you mean?"

"The Citadel was not just a physical building on the Motherworld." Bellina was still quiet, but sadness arced through her tone now. "The First Tenno built it. He…" She shrugged. "It took a long time for the principles to become known but essentially, he opened a pocket of subspace. An alternate dimension. Kind of like the Void, if not quite so inimical."

"Bellina…" The Prime said slowly. "If the Void is blocked off. The people within go mad. AIs, organics, Tenno… the result is the same. Without comprehensive protections like that sanitarium, _everyone_ goes mad."

"Only if they are awake." Bellina corrected him with a tiny smile. The Prime stiffened and she nodded. "Yes, we have cryo facilities ready for everyone."

"Even you?" He didn't want to ask that. From his tone, that was patently clear.

"No." Bellina said with a sigh. "My time is almost up, Richard. I am tired." The Prime went stiff and she patted his arm. "They promise me it won't hurt. That they won't let me hurt."

"No." The Prime begged. "Bellina… Can't you take a warframe?"

"No." The ancient Tenno woman said gently. "My neural net is a mess, Richard. If I try to connect, I die quick, in horrible pain. This is better."

"There has to be something we can do!" The Prime said sharply. "Cryo! Something!"

"Richard." The woman patted his arm again. "It's okay. I made my peace a long time ago. They were amazed that I woke from cryo the last time. I shouldn't have." The Prime was shaking his head and Bellina sighed. "Stubborn fool…" She said fondly. "Richard… I have everything I ever wished for." She reached dup to cup his armored cheek with a hand. "I got to see you again." She looked away for a moment. "They will need you… When I pass. They will need you."

"I…" The Prime swallowed hard and then bowed his head. "There has to be something!"

"The only way that anyone has found to keep a part of me…" Bellina's voice turned hard. "I won't let them do. I won't be a slave to those Orokin scum. I won't let them play with me as they have been playing with the souls of so many of our kin."

"I…" The Prime repeated and then paused. He shook himself hard, but was careful not to jar the old woman. "The Emulation…? They copied Tenno?"

"One of the things they took was a hard copy of the Code." Bellina's voice was fierce now. "We took it _back_, but they had made copies."

"So… The people who volunteered…" The Prime really did not like this.

"We are not totally sure." Bellina said quietly. "That is one reason we were glad to see you and Kori. Kori was one of them. One of the first group. The others… are descendants." The Prime recoiled just a little.

"What will you do to her?"

"We are not the Orokin, Richard." Bellina said with a hint of ice. "We will get her out of her warframe carefully and…"

"She can't leave it!" The Prime protested. "It will kill her."

"No." Bellina promised him. "It won't. We have seen such neural trauma before and can handle it. We will do a full baseline genetic scan. And then, when she wakes, we will ask her some questions."

"Good luck. She won't talk to you." The Rhino Prime said sourly. "She barely talks to _me_ sometimes."

"I can be pretty convincing." Bellina said with a smug grin. The Prime had to chuckle at that. Yes, she could. "But I would hope for your help too."

"Mary and the other civilians?" the Prime asked after a moment's thought.

"As soon as we are done with the scans and have healed the girl's and the Elder's wounds, we will send them back." Bellina promised. "Kori can go if she wishes. As can you. I… I want you to stay, but I have no right to demand it of you. You don't even remember me."

"You are very convincing." The Prime said with a sigh. "But I need to think on this."

"Of course." Bellina said with a smile. "I wouldn't expect you to make such a decision in the space of seven breaths." The Prime chuckled at that too. "Do you wish to remain with Kori? Mary is in the ICU and the docs won't let her out any time soon."

"Where is Mavri?" The Prime asked.

"In surgery." Bellina said with a nod. "The docs are cautious but hopeful."

"I would like to talk to him." The male Tenno said after a moment.

"We were going to just send him back as soon as he was healed." Bellina said, confused. "Why?"

"Bellina… Severing all contact with the outside is not the answer." The Prime's words were calm, but heartfelt. "Nikis said I need to end the schism. And I think I can start that here."

"Richard…" The aged female sounded worried now. "We have hated the Orokin and the False for a long, long time. For the lives they took. For you."

"Then maybe it is time to stop." The Prime said gently. "Do not pass from this life angry, Bellina."

"I…" The woman stared at him and then hugged him tight, crying. "I don't know if I can stop."

"Yes you can." The Prime's voice was feather soft now. "You just have to want it hard enough. Tenno do not fight Tenno and the ones you call the False _are_ Tenno. They follow the Code and Nikis trained many of them."

"I…" Bellina slumped and nodded. "A hard road."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

><p>He was aware the moment that Kori woke. He had been sitting at her bedside since Bellina had gone for a rest period. One moment, Kori was deeply asleep, the next, she wasn't. Her breathing did not change, but he could feel her scrutiny.<p>

"Kori." He said without preamble. "How do you feel?"

"Good." Kori sai and then froze. "I…Wait… what…?" She stared down at herself, at the white patient gown that covered her instead of her warframe. "I… I couldn't remove it!" Her tone was odd. Fear predominated, but anger came a close second. "What did they _do_ to me?"

"They healed the neural trauma." The Prime said easily. Kori stared at him, her eyes wide. "Welcome to the First's Citadel, Kori." Kori went completely still at that. "They have had a lot of practice with odd Tenno ailments."

"By the ancestors…" She paused and smiled. "Literally."

"I have something very odd to ask you, Kori." The Prime said softly.

"Are we prisoners?" Kori asked, staring around. The room was small and spartan in the extreme, but most Tenno did not go for comforts. It could have been a large cell, or a small one room apartment.

"Ah… Yes and no." The Prime replied calmly. Kori favored him with a sour glance and he shrugged. "We are under surveillance and there is a guard outside. But they say you will be able to leave shortly."

"Without my warframe?" Kori said with a snarl. "Fat chance."

"Kori." The Prime said sourly. "Do you really think I would make you bond to a new one just after your brain was healed? Sheesh…"

"I dunno." Kori said with a wicked grin. "What about you?" She asked.

"I don't know." The Prime replied with a deep sigh. "I found out something that really bothers me. And… yes… I was technically a traitor." He had asked to see the records of the time and… it had been… bad. Worse than he had feared. "I did disobey a direct order from the Orokin Emperor to communicate."

"I don't believe it." Kori went still. "What happened?"

"it's a bit of a long story." The Prime said with a grunt. "Bellina will be back in an hour or so. She tells it better than I can. She actually remembers it."

"_Bellina?_" Kori asked and then frowned. "I know that name. From… the Codex… Wife of the the… First…Rhino…" Her voice trailed off.

"Apparently I _was_. The First Rhino that is." The Prime shrugged. "I don't remember. The records are… extensive."

"Records can be faked." Kori wasn't arguing. More like, she was trying to make sense of this sudden shift and the Prime could relate.

"True." The Rhino paused and then sighed. "I need to ask you something, Kori. And it will… sound odd."

"Okay." Kori lay back, smoothing the white gown. "Go ahead."

"Do you remember your parents?" At the Prime's words, Kori went still. "It is very important."

"Vaguely." Kori was frankly staring at the Rhino now. "They died when I was very young. Why?"

"I found out what the Tenno Emulation Project was." Kori hissed at that and the Rhino nodded. "You don't want to know."

"Do I _need_ to?" Kori asked carefully.

"I don't know." The Prime admitted. "Um… You said that Will 'became' Tenno. I assume it wasn't easy." Kori scoffed at that and he nodded. "Kori… what is the very first thing you remember when you put on the warframe for the first time?"

"That was _very_ long time ago." Kori protested. "And I was captured, tortured and _brainwashed_ in the interim."

"I bet you remember." The Prime said with a sigh. "Please. Try."

"Okay…" Kori drawled out the word and then closed her eyes, thinking hard. "I was… I was in an Orokin medical facility. I was told that there had been a problem with my connection. That I had been unconscious for some time." She shook her head, her eyes still closed. "It is… clear. Very clear…" She said in wonder. Why?"

"The doctor's name was Green." The Prime said quietly. "The nurse's name was Joyce." Kori's eyes shot open and she stared at him now. "They helped you get functional again quickly. Then you went out and went straight to the fight."

"How the hell do you know that?" Kori asked, stunned. Instead of answering, the Prime slid a pad across to her. He had been studying ti for a while and trying not to lose his lunch. The detail of the memories was astounding. But… none of it was real. "What is…" Kori's words trailed off as she read. The writing matched what she had said and provided other things. "Joyce smelled of wood smoke…" Kori stared at the screen.

"She had an old style fireplace in her living quarters." The Prime said from his memory of the reading. "The doctor liked to read ancient horror stories."

"How…" Kori stammered. "What… What does this mean? My memories are _false_?"

"Yes." The Prime was in motion as Kori started to scream. Then he was holding her as she wept out her grief and fear. "It's okay, Kori." He soothed her. "It's okay. We will figure this out."

"I was… made…" Kori stammered, clinging to the Prime's warframe. "I was _made_…"

"Yes. You were."


	14. Chapter 14

**Family**

"You don't need to do this, Kori." Bellina said gently, stroking the shuddering woman's arm gently. "We can do it while you sleep. While you are in a dream state. It shouldn't hurt physically either way, but…"

Kori had been adamant that she had to know what had happened. Nothing that anyone had said had swayed her from this course. The Rhino Prime was trying not to fret as the doctor finished the final connections to the metal skull cap that Kori wore. She was lying on a raised bed, her torso raised for comfort. Several machine monitored her condition sand others were ready in case of problems. She smiled at Bellina. Kori had liked the ancient Tenno woman as soon as she had met her.

"I need to know, Bellina." Kori said with a sigh. She was obviously frightened, but controlled it well. "Let's do this." Bellina patted her arm and moved away from the chair where Kori lay.

"Okay." Bellina nodded to the doctor who nodded and sat in a chair that had an odd console attached. Controls. A screen lit up on one wall and Bellina spoke again. Her tone was geared for calm. "Okay, Kori. Think back. What is the first thing you remember?"

"I woke in a medical facility." Kori said slowly, her eyes slowly closing. Her voice lost all emotion as she focused on what she remembered. "It was… Orokin…"

"Were you in your warframe?" Bellina asked quietly.

"Yes." Kori replied evenly. "This is… They told me I had been selected…" On the screen, a man in Orokin medical garb spoke to her. There was no sound but Kori spoke again. "They said I was exceptional…"

"Did they say how?" Bellina asked. Kori thought about that for a moment and then shook her head a little, careful not to mess up the helmet.

"No." The reclining Tenno said with a gulp. "Just that I was exceptional."

"After that?" Bellina's voice was still soothing and the screen changed. Scenes of battle, of horror, of evil being played out against humanity shone on the screens and the Rhino found himself tensing.

"Went to war." Kori gave a soft sob. "So much death and destruction… I…"

"Easy Kori." Bellina soothed the now distraught younger female with a soft voice and a soft touch. "It's okay. These are just memories. They can hurt you, but only if you let them. What happened when you found the one who calls himself Will?" the screen changed and a young human appeared on it. Scruffy looking and in need of a bath, but there was something about him...

"He sought the Tenno." Kori said quietly. "He wanted to learn our ways. I told him and told him that it didn't work that way, but he persisted. I finally took him to the Elders and they agreed to train him. Or at least give him a chance. He… did very well." Kori sounded proud now. The doctor met Bellina's gaze and nodded.

"Okay, Kori." Bellina laid her hand on Kori's now. "We have our baseline. Are you ready to delve into before?"

"I am scared." Kori swallowed hard. "If… If I am just a cheap copy…"

"Kori, you are _anything_ but cheap." The Rhino said sharply. "Knock it off." Bellina glanced at him, but Kori just chuckled.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Rhino Sir." Kori said with a wicked grin and a laugh circled the room. "Anything you say."

"Don't make me hurt you." The Rhino's tone was humorous rather than threatening. Kori smiled and relaxed, which had been his intent.

"I am ready, Bellina." Kori said, relaxing as much as she could.

"Good girl." Bellina smiled and nodded to the doctor who hit a series of controls. Some of the machinery started to hum and Kori jerked a bit. "Kori…?"

"I…" Kori gasped and the screen flashed. "What…?" The screen stayed blank. "That is not good, is it?" She sounded a bit timid and who could blame her?

"No." Bellina said sadly. "There is nothing there. Think of your parents, Kori. You say you remember them?" The screen flashed and a pair of people shone on it. But they were fuzzy, indistinct.

"I can't see their faces." Kori whimpered a bit and Bellina stroked her hand. "I… Do you see anything else?" The screen went black and stayed that way. Bellina sighed deeply.

"No. Damn them." Bellina shook her head. "Shut it down." The doctor nodded and Bellina slumped a bit in her chair.

"What did they do to me?" Kori begged. The doctor perused his readouts, looked at Bellina and shook his head sadly.

"You memory was wiped, Kori." Bellina said sadly. "There is nothing we can do. After so much time, it is impossible to say how it was done. But the only way for your memories prior to the medical facility not to be there…" She trailed off.

"Is if someone removed them." Kori complete the thought. "I… talked a lot with a lot of shrinks after… my mess. They… they looked at my memories to determine my guilt." She slumped a bit as the doctor rose and started disconnecting her from the machinery. "So… what am I? A copy? A clone?'

"Nothing so simple." Bellina waited until the doctor was done, then moved her chair closer to the bed so she could touch Kori's cheek and wipe away the tears that were falling now. "You know what happens when cloning goes amok." Kori hissed and Bellina nodded. "We are doing a full genetic workup, but the basis is done. You are not a clone, Kori."

"Then what am I?" Kori demanded, but it was fear talking, not anger. The doctor finished up his work, nodded to Bellina and left the room.

"The Orokin put out a call for volunteers." Bellina said with a snarl. "We found out about it second hand, through Nikis. He was asked to teach some of them. He… was a bit miffed."

"I am surprised nobody died." The Rhino said mildly. Bellina just looked at him and he winced. "Oh… I see."

"Nikis is not one to tick off. And they _did_." Bellina said with a smile that was more feral than friendly. "But eventually, he trained some of them in our ways. According to him, there were other teachers, some Orokin, some military. He… did not think highly of them. Their intelligence _or_ their competence."

"Teaching how to use Orokin technology and how to use weapons." The Rhino mused. "But using the powers would be hit or miss."

"More misses than hits, according to Nikis." Bellina said dryly. Then her face fell. "The problem was… they had no idea what they were doing. Just handing people, even exceptional people…" She patted Kori's hand. "…such power is a recipe for disaster and they found that out the hard way."

"So if I am not a clone, what am I?" Kori asked, confused.

"Well…" Bellina smiled at her. "Nikis said that the Elders debated long and hard before allowing Will to train as a Tenno. What was it they said?" She mused. "If one followed the Code and lived as Tenno, then Tenno they be." Kori stared ta her and Bellina's mouth quirked a bit. "You have followed the Code, Kori."

"I…" Kori swallowed hard. "I have fallen short. So many times I have failed to adhere to the Code. Made a fool of myself."

"Join the club." Bellina said with a laugh. Kori stared at her and Bellina's smile became a grin. "You think _I_ am perfect? Kori, I am about as far from perfect as it is possible to be."

"But…" Kori stammered, undone by Bellina's humor. "You are one of the First."

"So?" The Rhino and Bellina said in unison and then chuckled in unison.

"So I am not in your class." Kori said weakly.

"Kori…" Bellina took the reclining woman's hand in both of her own. "Do you know why we use names now instead of calling people by their warframes?"

"Too many." Kori replied instantly. "If you have a thousand Tenno in Rhino warframes, how will you know who to call 'Rhino'?" She shook her head. "Will used the name Excalibur because he lost his memory. But he got it back. Most of it anyway."

"That is it in a nutshell, Kori." Bellina agreed. "You wear a warframe, you follow the Code as best you can. You may not be able to remember the parents who raised you, but you had them. And…" She shook her head. "I bet they would be proud of you."

"I would hope so." Kori said with a sigh. "So… Now what?"

"Do you want to go back?" Bellina asked kindly. "Your life, such as it was, is back with the others like you."

"I am sworn to the one called Ricard." Kori said firmly. 'I have to go back."

"Ricard?" Bellina inhaled sharply. "That lunatic is still around?" She chortled at Kori's expression. "I changed his diapers, girl. Don't even _try_."

"He was born here?" Kori asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes." Bellina's face took on a faraway look. "We had more people back them. Some found comfort in each other's arms. As long as everyone was happy, we didn't judge." Kori looked at her and then looked away. Bellina smiled, a slightly goofy look now. "And _yes_."

The Rhino looked at her and then at Kori. Then understanding hit him like a ton of bricks. "You and _Richard_…"

"We _were_ married." Bellina said a bit primly. "By the time I got too puny for such things, we had great, great, _great_ grandkids." Both the Prime and Kori were goggling at her now and Bellina sighed. "None were infected. They went off to have their own lives with our blessing." She slumped a bit now. "As far as I know… none survived the Collapse."

"I am sorry." Kori said quietly. "I know my own parents did not survive, but…" She broke off, clearly unsure of what to say.

"It's okay, Kori." Belllina smiled a bit wistfully now. "You met Rachel. She was the last one born here. You and Nikis stood as godparents for her, Richard."

"Her parents?" Kori asked after a moment. Bellina bowed her head and Kori flushed. "I am sorry."

"Everyone lost in the Collapse." Bellina said quietly. "But the worst part was that we lost people before it. And we have no idea at all what happened to them. They just… vanished." Her com chimed and she made a face. "Excuse me." She touched her ear and spoke into thin air. "Privacy mode." Suddenly, they couldn't hear her.

"This is… a lot of information." Kori said to the Prime who nodded.

"You holding up okay?" He asked gently.

"Fair." Kori grimaced, but it was comical. "Better than being locked in a psyche ward. I just wish I knew why that Ash shot me and stabbed me." The Prime was about to reply when Bellina gave out a sound that was halfway between a strangled gasp and an incoherent cry of joy. "Bellina?"

"Kori…" Bellina's face was pale as she turned back to look at the reclining woman. "I… Oh my god…" She was crying now. Hard. Kori sat up straight and reached for her. Bellina let Kori take her hands.

"What is wrong, Bellina?" Kori asked quickly, cradling the old woman's hands gently.

"Nothing, dear Kori." Bellina reached up with one hand and slowly traced Kori's cheek. "I don't know why Nik attacked you. We will have to find out. Soon." She shook her head. "I can guess, but…" She laughed a little. "I am not making any sense, am I?"

"Was it good news?" Kori asked. "What you just found out?"

"The best possible news I could have hoped for." Bellina said with a grin. "Of course… I am a bit worried about what karma has in store for me now. Getting Richard back and now… You…" She chuckled a bit ruefully. "Admittedly, a lot of the dumps that karma has dropped on us have been…extreme. Maybe this is karma's way of balancing things out?" She shook her head. "I am rattled. This is…" She shook herself. "Someone wants to talk to you."

"Who?" Kori asked softly.

"You haven't met him, although Richard has." Bellina said with a nod. "His name is Carlos. He is on his way." The Prime went still. Something in her tone… Something was about to happen. Something wonderful. Bellina mock glared at the Prime. "You hush."

"I wasn't going to say anything!" The Prime protested then paused. "The Ash Prime who attacked Kori mentioned 'Citadel rising'." Bellina went still and he continued. "The nanobot controlled people said that Kori had to be 'cleansed'."

"There are those among us who feel that we should take back what was taken from us." Bellina said quietly. "Our birthright. Our duty. Our honor. But those of us who feel that acting dishonorably will not bring honor have prevailed. Carlos is one of the ones who feel as I do. Even if we won the battles against the others… What then?"

"Some remnant of Orokin still survives." The Prime said quietly. "I saw Royal Guard."

"Avalon survived the Collapse." Bellina said with a grunt. "I guess they have a new monarch since their old one fell prey to his own hubris. Some tools cannot be controlled."

"Any weapon can turn in the hand if the wielder is unwary." Kori said with a nod, then she yawned. "Whoa…"

"You have had a long and stressful day, Kori." Bellina said with a smile. "I will leave you to relax. Carlos will be by in a few minutes. He wants to talk." She jerked her head at the door and the Rhino nodded.

"I don't understand." Kori said with a wince as she lay back on the bed. "Why does he want to talk to me?"

"Carlos was taken by a cult when he was small boy." Bellina said with a sigh. "The cult… were complete wackjobs. They called themselves the 'Disciples of Mezner'." Both Kori and the Prime hissed at that name and Bellina nodded. "They tried to start a new outbreak. They tried to make Infected and they succeeded." Kori slumped a bit but Bellina smiled. "All but one of them died. The boy who survived became Tenno and joined us. His parents thought he was dead. So… They apparently had another child. A girl."

"_What_?" Kori's face went dead white. "You are not _serious_!"

"Genetics don't lie, Kori." Bellina said with a smile. "Your older brother will be here in a moment." Kori's mouth fell open and Bellina laughed. "Close your mouth dear, you are attracting flies."

"I…" The door chimed and Kori recoiled. "I… What do I do?" She begged.

"Talk to him." Bellina said with a fond smile. "But know that _whatever_ you choose to do, you have family here." With that, she wheeled her chair to the door, which opened. An Oberon warframe stood just outside, his posture… worried. "Carlos." Bellina's voice was a command. "Be gentle."

The Rhino Prime nodded to the Oberon as he followed Bellina out the door. The Oberon stepped in and the door hissed shut behind them.

"No offense…" The Prime said quietly. "But how far do you trust Carlos?"

"Yesterday, I would have said with my life." Bellina mused. "But with Nik going bonkers and everything… the room has dampeners and surveillance systems in place. He can't hurt her. Not that he _would_. Family is everything to him. _Our_ family." She let loose a sound of contentment and then nodded. "Mary is fully healed. She has been returned to her family and is sleeping soundly with them. All of our scans are done. The Elder should wake shortly."

"I had better be there." The Prime said with a grunt.

"We had better be there." Bellina agreed. "He was one of Nikis' protégés. Smart and capable, according to the old coot anyway."

"I only dealt with him for a little while." The Prime agreed. "But yeah. He was smart."

"Come on." Bellina started her chair off and the trip was uneventful to a nearby room. In it, a single bed lay against one wall and Mavri lay on it. His skull had been shaved and the faint red of healing injuries shone. Bellina paused and then laughed sourly. "He _is_ smart. He is awake already."

"Elder." The Prime said with a sigh. "I don't know if you remember me or not."

"You are memorable." The Elder's voice was weak, but clear. "I… That young man swung a pipe at my head…"

"You were every badly hurt." The Prime said sadly. "The Lotus thought you dead."

"Didn't I tell you idiots 'No Rescues'?" Mavri snapped, trying to sit up and then laying back with a groan.

"You need to take a bit more time, Elder." Bellina said formally. "The damage has been healed, but you were very badly hurt. I am Bellina, leader here."

"Mavri." The Elder said as he turned to stare at the chair bound woman. "But you knew that. "Bellina…?" His eyes suddenly went wide. "_Bellina?_"

"Yes." Bellina said sadly. "I know. I know. I am a traitor just like Richard here."

"No." Mavri said with a sigh. Bellina went still and the Elder shook his head, wincing in apparent pain. "Neither of you are traitors. You followed the Code."

"Fat lot of good it did us." Bellina said sourly. "The Emperor screwed us."

"No." Mavri said softly. "The Emperor did not."

"_Excuse me?_" Bellina snapped. "I was kind of _here_. I _saw_ it happen. Cleaned up the mess. Lost my husband and buried a friend because of it."

"You lack information." Mavri said slowly. "Would it help you to know that the one who robbed you was executed for it?" Bellina went still and Mavri sighed. "I saw it done. I was… just elevated to my rank. He was executed for causing the schism. For killing one of your people and causing the fight between the Royal Guard and yours…" He shook his head. "It wasn't the Emperor who did all that."

"It was his _representative_!" Bellina snapped.

"Milady…" Mavri said slowly. "The Emperor didn't _send_ any representative."


	15. Chapter 15

**Points of View**

"What do you mean?" The Rhino demanded when Bellina just stared at the Elder, obviously unable to speak. "I saw the records. The nanobots that attacked."

"There _was_ an attack." Mavri said quietly. "It wasn't at the Emperor's command. He was… busy." The Tenno statesman said with a grimace.

"Okay." The Prime said slowly, carefully. "I have heard Bellina's version. What is _yours_?"

"It took ten years of investigation, by many different investigators." Mavri said with a sigh. "But eventually, the being who had _claimed_ to be a representative, a Doctor Aril Zom… was taken into custody and interrogated. Under interrogation, he revealed what he did."

"I don't know the name." Bellina said weakly.

"I doubt you would." Mavri's tone could have dried a river. "He was the CEO of a pharmaceutical company that specialized in nano technology for medicine. And… other activities. I remember the alias he used. Jack Bristow."

"Yes." Bellina sounded stunned. "That _was_ the name. _He_ was the one?"

"It wasn't him alone." Mavri sudden wilted a bit. "They… there were lot of people who were losing things in the war. Money, power, family… And remember… Under Orokin it was okay to take what you wanted as long as no one was hurt in the process." Bellina bristled a bit and the Rhino laid a hand on her arm.

"People _were_ hurt. One was _killed_." Bellina snapped. "And Richard was taken and… things were done to him."

"I know." Mavri said softly. "Nothing I say or do can undo what was done. You were well within your rights to retaliate. But… it escalated."

"Wait a moment." The Prime said slowly. "The Tenno had withdrawn to the Citadel after the revelation of what had happened to their fallen." Mavri winced and nodded. "Why did the Emperor not communicate with them?"

"The… reigning Emperor was not…the brightest of bulbs…" Mavri said very carefully. Bellina scoffed and he looked at her.

"_I'll say_. How many _girls_ was he sleeping with when they tried to tell him?" Bellina asked, her face thunderous. "That was why we figured it would take at least a _week_ for them to get back to us." Mavri winced visibly and Bellina snorted. "Figured."

"Not the brightest of bulbs." Mavri repeated. "Remember, all I have is records that I have seen, but… From what I gathered, reading about the mess... He didn't even _know_ about the schism until after you were attacked and went after the ones responsible."

"So… the Royal Guard…" The Prime mused.

"Responded to a distress call from a highly secret facility." Mavri said with a sigh. "They didn't know what was going on there. Truth be told, they didn't care. They lost five before your people withdrew. After…" He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "They found the sleeping beings who had been… processed. Newly made in brand new warframes." He slumped a bit. "What would _you_ have done?" He asked Bellina. "They didn't remember who they had been. Or what. The Orokin tried to contact you, but all communications had been severed. The portals didn't work. They…" He slumped. "They figured you wouldn't come back."

"And so we sat." Bellina sank back onto her cousins weakly. "Sat and stewed… I…" The Rhino gave her arms a squeeze and then moved his hand to her shoulder. She covered it with her own. "What have we _done_?" She begged the Rhino.

"You acted on the information you had." Mavri said with a frown. "I likely would have done the same thing. Of course… I was… raised to think of myself as Tenno. To follow the Code, but… They needed leaders." He slumped a bit. "Few of us want the job. It sucks."

"Yeah." Bellina agreed, calming a little. "But with so many of you…" She shook her head. "What now? We can send you back. We took a series of samples from the population, to check for damage from the malfunctioning nanites. There doesn't seem to be any. Kori…"

"_Kori_?" Mavri asked, his eyes going wide. "What is _she_ doing here?"

"She was with me when the nanites invaded Karl's dojo." The Prime said with a sigh. Mavri and Bellina hissed at that. "You… didn't know?" He asked Bellina who shook her head.

"No." Bellina said, her voice turning worried. "How did they…?" She groaned. "Oh. You had your axe when you woke up, didn't you? Whoever was with you probably was exposed to the nanites. They wouldn't affect _you_. But anyone around you…"

"There were _four_ Tenno around me when I woke and shortly after…" The Prime said uneasily. "They could be _everywhere_ by now."

"Can they be stopped?" The reclining Elder asked after a moment of worry.

"Sure." Bellina reassured him. "With the proper command codes, which we have. The problem is… Nik."

"The Ash Prime." The Rhino said flatly. Mavri looked at him and the Rhino sighed. "He attacked Kori." Mavri's eyes went very wide at that. "Nearly killed her. When we stopped him, he laughed –sounding insane- and _exploded_." Mavri hissed at that and the Rhino nodded. "Has your investigation here found anything?"

"No." Now Bellina sounded upset. "He was… a bit around the bend, but we all are after so long here, alone." She shook her head. "When we send you back, Elder Mavri, we will give you the control codes for those nanites. They won't work here again. We… upgraded our defenses."

"Again." Mavri sounded just as upset. "I don't blame you. But… Milady Bellina, this schism must end."

"I agree." Bellina shook herself and her tone strengthened. "Do you feel up to talking in public?"

"What do you have in mind?" Mavri sounded… odd. A mix of caution and eagerness.

"We don't generally go for long winded political discourses." Bellina said with a smile. "There are not a lot of us left. We can usually hammer out consensus after some time. But this… This is going to raise the roof. We have hated for a long time." She shook her head. "We will need to see those records." Mavri nodded.

"In your place, I wouldn't trust, well _me_, either." Mavri said with a self-depreciating grin. "What do we do?"

"We talk."

* * *

><p>The silence in the large chamber when Mavri was done speaking could have been sliced with a skana. Eight Tenno in Prime warframes knelt in seiza around where Bellina sat in her chair, the Rhino Prime at her side. Mavri had wanted to stand, but the doc had been adamant that he wasn't strong enough yet. A wheeled chair sufficed for the moment. Kori knelt in robes beside the Oberon that was Carlos. The Prime hadn't noticed the gold on it before. It was an Oberon <em>Prime<em>. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen one of those.

"My kin…" Bellina said sadly. "What have I done?" She begged. "I have led us to ruin."

"No." Rachel's voice came from a Saryn Prime. "You followed the Code. We all agreed. We… all erred."

"What was done to you all was horrible." Mavri said quietly. "A violation of everything you are and were. The investigation was thorough. It was run by the Royal Guard." A stillness swept the room and Mavri nodded. "I understand your feelings about them. I too know betrayal, if not on such a scale. I… knew a Tenno named Nicholas. He was…a friend until he went renegade." A hiss followed that declaration. "He is dead now along with almost all of the ones who followed him."

"_Almost_ all?" A Trinity Prime asked from the side. Kori answered her.

"Two survived." Kori sounded both resigned and elated, as odd as that sounded. "Both enslaved by the Orokin Tower that they helped invade." Carlos nodded to her and she smiled.

"Ah." The Trinity sounded a bit sheepish now, but she nodded. "A just fate, to help others."

"Neither was truly evil." Mavri said with a sigh. "I read a transcript of the interrogations. The one known as Luc was young and impressionable. He fell into a bad group. The one known as Lis tried to make amends and nearly died as a result. They accepted the punishment and have worked hard to atone."

"A long, hard road." Bellina agreed. "And a good segue. Where to now, my kin? What… what do we do? How do we end this? This schism. It must end. I think we all know that. But how?" One of the others, a Valcyr Prime, raised a hand and Bellina nodded. "Yes, Jenni?"

"No offense, Elder." The cat headed warframe said slowly and carefully. "But we only have your word for this." A soft sound went around the room, not negation. Worry.

"True." Mavri agreed and the crowd relaxed. It seemed like a huge crowd, being all Prime warframes, but it really wasn't. Only eight of the original group had survived. Plus Bellina who did not wear a warframe. "There are records available in the secure archives of the colony I led." He snorted. "Even those nanites would have difficulty getting in _there_."

"Never say never." The Rhino Prime cautioned Mavri.

"True." Mavri repeated sourly. "So if you want to see them, I guess the best idea is to return there. We need to undo what the nanites did anyway. Those…people are my responsibility."

"Say what they are, Elder." Carols said calmly. "They are Tenno."

"_Are_ we?" Mavri asked the room. "For years I asked myself that question. Ever since my predecessor took me to the records room and showed me what was stored there."

"You are." The Rhino Prime said calmly. "You follow the Code. You wear –wore anyway- a warframe. You follow the Way of the Blade and Gun." A murmur of agreement went around the room at that and Mavri smiled a bit forlornly.

"You don't know what it means to hear you say that, Richard." Mavri sounded a bit choked up although none of it showed on his face. "Years I spent meditating on what I was. On what I had _thought_ I was. Only to find out we had been lied to. _All_ of us."

"Why did Richard wind up in the Void?" Kori asked after a moment. All eyes turned to her and she wilted a bit, but she straightened when Carlos made a supportive noise. "I understand that the nanites were in his axe. But…" She looked at the Rhino who returned her look. "I… It is not my place to say."

"What, Kori?" The Rhino asked.

"Why were they going to kill you?" Kori asked. A gasp went around the room. Everyone was staring at the Rhino now, including Mavri. "That doesn't make any sense if you were a victim."

"_Who_ was going to kill him?" Bellina demanded. Kori swallowed hard and shot a beseeching glance at the Rhino Prime who nodded.

"Hayden." The Rhino said calmly. Another gasp circled the room and he shook his head. "He didn't say why. No…" He paused. "He was _forbidden_ to say why. I think… I think he was sworn to silence on the matter. Him and all the others." He shook his head. "He was very angry. But also… resigned. Kori stopped him." Everyone stared at Kori again and she wilted a bit more. Carlos laid a hand on her arm and she straightened a bit.

"Why would Hayden want you dead?" Bellina asked weakly. "He was your friend. _Our_ friend…" Mavri paled at that, but remained silent as the doctor glared at him. Even through the sealed Volt Prime faceplate, the glare was clear.

"I don't think he wanted to." The Prime said quietly. "But Kori and then the First Nyx stopped him."

"Nyx always _did_ have an ironclad sense of ethics." Bellina calmed a little. "Came from her own experiences I think. She wasn't a prude by _any_ stretch of the imagination, but if you did something she considered immoral? You _regretted_ it."

"That's just it." The Prime said mildly. "I don't think she disapproved. Just that…something changed. Not sure what. She was sad, but not…" He shook his head, baffled.

"She could be as brutal as any of us." Bellina said with a faint smile of remembrance. "But she was fairness made incarnate. No one stepped on her ethics. Not without consequences. Most of us ran afoul of them at some time." She chuckled. "Mag did it just to set her off, even though irritating the Nyx was _rarely_ a good idea."

"We need to end this schism." The Prime shrugged. "Are my own problems germane here?"

"I…" Kori paused as all eyes landed on her again. "I think it is. _They_ are." She qualified. "You don't remember what happened. Was is cryonesia or something else? They never did get around to scanning your mind in the dojo."

"No." The Prime agreed. "But we also need to help the colony. The non-combatants first." Bellina nodded with a smile and he returned the nod.

"We have to recharge the portal systems." Bellina said as the assembled Tenno started to rise from their kneeling positions. "We have everything we need. The other civilians are asleep and can be transported like that."

"Why, if I may ask?" Mavri sounded confused.

"We have been locked away for a long time, Elder Mavri." Rachel said with a nod. "We need to be very cautious in how we approach this. We have been on hair trigger… since…" She trailed off and the Prime nodded.

"Since the schism." The Rhino Prime agreed. "Time to end it."

"Will you lead us?" One of the others said calmly. A Banshee Prime.

"No." The Rhino replied. "I may have once led you, but that was long ago. I am not that being anymore. Bellina is your leader."

"Ah…" Bellina looked embarrassed. "Only 'Pro-tem'."

"You didn't…" The Rhino groaned. Bellina had a slightly goofy grin on her face now.

"I can't wear a warframe, Richard." Bellina said mildly. "That disqualifies me from many activities and this contraption…" She patted the armrest of her chair. "…limits me further." The Rhino Prime sighed deeply and she smiled. "You always were the heart and soul of us, Richard."

"I am not who I was." The Rhino protested.

"We will find out what happened." Bellina promised as Kori rose with Carlos at her side. "How long to charge the portal, Rachel?"

"Two hours." Rachel said with a nod. "Enough time?" All eyes turned to the Volt who was the medical professional and he sighed just as deeply as the Rhino had.

"It shouldn't be rushed." The Tenno in question said sternly. "It can do a lot of damage if it is rushed."

"What are you going to _do_?" The Rhino asked with a chuckle. "Destroy my memory?"

"Lots of things can go wrong." The medic replied uneasily.

"I need to know, doc." The Rhino had a frown in his voice now. "I think we all need to know. If I am a threat of some kind…" A host of protests went around the room, but petered out as he raised a hand. "I don't know if I am or not. _You_ don't know. I could be a Trojan Horse for all we know." Kori paled at that and he shook his head. "I do not think I am, but we don't know if I have some kind of programming buried in my mind. Not until we look. But…" He shook his head. "I am going to be blunt. Who here thinks Citadel should 'rise'?" A stillness swept the room and then three hands went up. A Frost Prime, Banshee Prime and a Trinity Prime. From their stances all were worried, but he waved at them. "You are honest, as Tenno should be. There is no shame in having a disagreeing opinion as long as it doesn't endanger anyone."

"We…" The Trinity started and then paused. "We wanted to _do_ something. Training, nothing but training… we are swords whose edges have been honed too sharp. Too brittle." She bowed her head. "Like Nik."

"Do you know why he attacked Kori?" The Rhino asked quietly.

"No." The Trinity sounded abject now and the other two's stances were just as worried. "We talked about what to do, what to try… But he was the sneakiest of all of us. When Bellina needed someone to get into that dojo quietly, he was really the only choice."

"So you didn't put the bomb in him." The Rhino said with a sigh. The trinity shook her head and he slumped a bit. "Someone did. Either… before he left here. Or after. Where did he go? Do you know?"

"If he had been rigged, the security systems would have detected it." This from a Nova Prime.

"Would they?" The Trinity asked quietly. "He was sneakiness incarnate, Olga. You know that." The Nova nodded reluctantly. "You cannot trust us." She said to the Rhino.

"Oh…" The Rhino had a smile in his voice now. "I think I can." The Trinity stiffened, the Frost and Banshee likewise. "Don't make me regret it." He warned her. She nodded to him, the others quickly following suit. "So… check the security systems and scan my brain?"

"Carlos." Bellina said quietly. "Take Kori and Mavri with you. Check the security systems." The room stilled and she frowned. "They are outsiders, yes. They may see what we would not. We see what _should_ be. That might not be what _is_."

"Good point." The Rhino said as the Volt Prime stepped closer. "And I go into the doc here's clutches. Tell me, doc… Do you bite?"

"Only when I have to." The Volt said with a snort. "Come on. It won't take long to set up and everyone will want to see. It won't take them long to check security."

"Okay." The Rhino felt a great calm descend on him. One way or another, he would finally know. "I am ready."


	16. Chapter 16

**Memory Bytes**

It wasn't uncomfortable. Well, the chair wasn't. All of the machinery aimed at the Rhino made him more than a bit nervous despite the doctor's reassurances. Kori and Carlos stood by one wall and Mavri stood by where Bellina sat in her life support chair right beside them. All of the other surviving Tenno of the Citadel had also crowded into the room despite the doctor agitation. Not that he had agitated very hard. He too wanted to know.

"Ready?" The doc asked the Rhino Prime gently.

"Not sure." The Rhino said with a sour chuckle. "I don't know how to put this…" He said after a moment. "I _really_ don't think we am going to like what we find."

"Whatever it is, we can handle it." Bellina soothed with a smile. He nodded to her and laid his head back against the headrest of the chair.

"Ready doc." The Prime said calmly. The doctor nodded, hit a series of controls and focused on his monitors. The Prime watched with the others as the screen went dark. "Let me think…" he thought back to… "What the-?" The screen had lit up, but…

"Whoever is watching this…" The voice from the Rhino Prime on the screen was eerily familiar. "Do not. This is the only warning I can give. There are secrets that must be kept." Everyone in the room froze as the Rhino in the chair did. The screen went dark again.

"Um…" The doctor swallowed hard and looked from Bellina to the Prime and back. "That was you."

"I left… a message… to _myself?_" The Prime sked the room slowly.

"To anyone who might scan your mind." Bellina said softly. "We need to know, Richard."

"Is it worth it, Bellina?" The Prime said after a moment, looking to where Mavri stood, his face impassive. "Elder? Do you know anything you can say?"

"Not that I know of." Mavri answered immediately. "Then again, I didn't see a lot of the records of the colony. I spent most of my time working, running the place. Not a lot of spare time."

"So you have no idea either." The Prime sighed. "Fine. I need everyone's word to keep whatever we find in confidence." The others tensed and the Prime nodded slowly, careful not to jar the feed than ran to his warframe helmet. "This must be why the First Tenno was going to kill me. If he was sworn to silence… like Nikis couldn't say… I bet everyone involved was sworn to silence. Maybe me too." He slumped a bit. "The Lotus warned me that the avenue of inquiry led to nothing but pain… but…" He bowed his head and then sighed. "We need to know."

"You have my oath, Richard." Bellina said quietly. A chorus of nods went around the room. Both Kori and Mavri bowed their heads and well, affirming their own oaths. Bellina nodded. "What happens in here will not be spoken of. Ever."

The Rhino nodded and laid his head back on the scanner apparatus. But…

* * *

><p>Something was wrong! He wasn't sitting in the chair anymore. He was lying on something hard and unyielding. Soft sounds came from all around him. Whimpers? Crying? What the <em>hell?<em> The Rhino jerked up and froze in place. He was surrounded by tiny forms. Each and every one of them were humanoid in shape, but… The shapes were recognizable. Sort of. They were _warframes_, but… Tiny. None of them were larger than a human child! But they _were_ warframes! Frost, Banshee, Excalibur… He saw each and every warframe that he knew represented, but… these were kids. Small kids!

"Don't wake them." The soft voice was easily recognizable and the Rhino turned his head to see a familiar black armored form kneeling by a wall. "If you wake them, we will have a hell of a time getting them to sleep again."

He nodded to a door nearby and the Rhino rose slowly. He stepped carefully over the slumbering forms to the door which hissed open silently. The Nekros followed him. As soon as the door shut, the Rhino snarled.

"_Nikis?_" He demanded. "What the hell is going on? We… we were attacked…"

"I know." Nikis said sadly. "I was searching for the missing, you remember?" The Rhino nodded. Nikis had made it his life's work to find kin who had disappeared over the years. A noble cause, to be sure but… "I found them." The Rhino stared at the Nekros, uncertain and the Nekros bowed his head. "Dead, almost all of them."

"Kalina?" The Rhino asked carefully, aware suddenly that neither he nor the Nekros was armed. Nikis never went anywhere without a pair of pistols. Sometimes more than one pair. He considered rifles to be useless toys. No one sane who had ever seen Nikis shoot quarreled with him about it. His warframe felt off. Dampened somehow. Nikis' mate Kalina had been one of the ones who had vanished. He had gone after her… If he was _here_… Wherever _here_ was. The Rhino stared around. From the 'thrum' in the background, they were on a spacecraft of some kind. Then he paused. Nikis hadn't responded. "Nikis?"

"She is… alive." Nikis said softly. "And there is someone you need to meet." The Rhino was shaking his head in confusion as the Nekros started off, but followed gamely. "Please… Richard… I…" the Nekros sounded abject now, a very different being from the hard and capable gunslinger that the Rhino had known most of his long, long life.

"Nikis." The Rhino said quietly. "I am not going to like this, am I?" The Nekros shook his head. "Where are we? I mean, obviously a ship."

"No idea." Nikis said quietly. "They move us around a lot. I know there is a facility of some kind that they ship the kids from. The 'failures'."

"The…" The Rhino stopped in mid-step at that and the Nekros paused and nodded. "Oh god no… They _didn't_…"

"They did." Nikis said sadly. "They tried cloning Tenno. It… didn't work so well for them."

"Kalina?" The Rhino begged. He liked the exuberant Zephyr. She was so different from the cold and hard gunslinger, but they… fit as odd as that sounded.

"They did something different with her." The Nekros said, head bowed. "She is alive… mostly. Just… please, let me explain before you make any decisions."

"Nikis." The Rhino protested. "Since when do I _ever_ make hasty decisions?"

"Since _this_ violates several precepts of the Code." Nikis said softly as he started off again, the Rhino standing stunned for just a moment then following. "The bastards running this thing really screwed up, but we are stuck." He shook his head. "Or..._ I_ am. Not sure about _you_."

"Stuck?" The Rhino asked carefully, but Nikis did not respond. "Nikis?" He pressed.

The Nekros stopped at a door and keyed it open. The Rhino went completely still as a young voice spoke from inside. "Dad?"

The boy couldn't have been over sixteen years old. He looked… odd. As if the robes he wore covered more than just flesh. But he was moving easily in a complicated pattern that the Rhino identified as a sword kata minus the sword. The boy froze in mid-motion, staring at the Rhino, then he ended his practice and bowed to the Rhino.

"Do not bow." The Rhino snapped automatically. "Tenno bow to no one."

"I am not Tenno." The young one replied easily. "Just a copy."

"Baloney." The Rhino said with feeling, then turned to look at Nikis who was staring at him. "_Dad_?" He asked, incredulous.

"Long story." Nikis said with a sigh, but the Rhino just chuckled.

"Isn't it _always_ around us?" The Rhino shook his head, bemused. "What is your name, boy?"

"My name is Dustin."

* * *

><p>Gasps of shock roused the Rhino from whatever had gripped him and he shook himself as he looked around. All eyes were glued to the screen and the boy's face on it.<p>

"Dustin…Dust." Kori said weakly. "Nikis' son… I…"

"Those were _warframes_…" The Trinity Prime from before said just as weakly. "_Miniature_ warframes…"

"Children… In warframes… as if they had been _born_ in them…" Bellina sounded stunned almost beyond words. The doc looked worried and stepped to her side, but she waved a weak hand at him. "I am okay. I am okay. We need to know."

"Bellina." The Prime felt worry rise.

"Richard, we need to know." Steel would have bent under Bellina's cold words. "Now, more than ever."

"I… I had heard that Dustin was Nikis' son…" Kori looked at Mavri who looked ashen but nodded. "But… He was far older than _that_. Wasn't he?"

"Kalina disappeared a hundred years before we were attacked and sequestered ourselves." Bellina quieted a bit, calming. "If she and Nikis… No…" She paused. "Both were like Richard. They couldn't remove their warframes."

"We need to know." The Prime said softly. "But I don't think _any_ of us will like the answers." He sat back and the doc looked at him, then Bellina who nodded. A tap and…

* * *

><p>"What is going on, Nikis?" The Rhino did not move from where he stood. The young Tenno in the room had frozen when the Rhino had. Nikis hadn't moved at <em>all<em>_._ The Nekros bowed his head and the Rhino snarled. "Nikis…"

"Richard… I found Kalina." Nikis said slowly. "And him." He nodded to Dustin who slowly sank into seiza. "I woke up here after being knocked unconscious and here he was." The Rhino looked at Dustin who bowed his head formally.

"And you?" The Rhino asked the young Tenno slowly.

"This is my home." The boy said quietly. "This is where I belong." The Rhino shook his head and Nikis sighed.

"Richard…" The Nekros started, only to pause as the Rhino sank into seiza himself. "What?"

"Nikis. Think." Richard said formally, as if he were instructing the Nekros once more. Nikis had… not been a good student, always quick to judge, to fight. But he had learned. Eventually. "How could you and Kalina…?" He shook his head. "It wouldn't have been possible. And even if it was… Nikis…" He groaned. "What did they _do?_"

"Show him, boy." Nikis said, sinking into seiza himself. Dustin went still and then rose slowly. He raised a hand and his outer robe dropped, leaving him in the inner ones that covered him for modesty's sake, but little else. Richard went still as he saw the telltale sign of Technocyte infestations, metal skin on the boy's upper arm and shoulders. "He changed, but didn't, Richard. From all I can determine, he was born like this. Almost twenty years ago."

"Aw crap." The Rhino swore softly. "Someone did this. Who?" He demanded.

"I don't know." Suddenly the Nekros sounded weary. "I have tried to escape so many times, Richard. To take him and go." The Prime froze. "To end this horror and everything here. I have failed every time."

"Kalina?" The Prime asked.

"Mother is gone." Dustin offered softly. "All that is left of her is a shell. A shell the evil ones who run this place use… to make more like me." Richard inhaled in horror. "They use me too…" He showed an arm that was literally covered in needle tracks.

"The kids…" Both the Nekros and the unarmored Tenno lad nodded at the Rhino's horror filled words.

"Clones." The Nekros said quietly. "I am no doc, but I picked up some stuff. Every one of them was born infected and in an exoskeleton. Not –quite- a warframe, but…" He shook his head. "I bet they will grow with them. Eventually, whoever is doing this will have an army."

"Someone has been experimenting with the Virus…" The Rhino said softly. "They know that is forbidden. Why would they do it _now?_"

"Richard…" Nikis said quietly. "They have been doing it for a long, long time. I have seen a few samples marked 'Nyx and 'Trinity'." Richard froze. Nyx –the First Nyx-… Her body had vanished from the battlefield where she had fallen, cut down while ending a Technocyte outbreak. Trinity had been blown apart in battle with a fanatic cult dedicated to creating an Infested apocalypse. The Nekros nodded. "They felt… right when I scryed them."

"Oh crap." The Rhino breathed. The Nekros specialty was death and it's adjuncts. He would know. This just got better and better. "So… someone has been experimenting on Tenno and the Technocyte Virus?"

"What I can't get is why." Nikis agreed quietly. "And why now? All of a sudden, things got downright lively around here and…"

All three were on their feet as the walls came alive. Orokin style drones appeared all around them.

"Stand down, Tenno." A monotone voice spoke from a hidden speaker. It was neither male nor female. Probably disguised. "We are not enemies."

"Could have fooled me." The Rhino and Nikis said in unison. The shared a glance and snorted in unison as well. Nikis made a small gesture and the Rhino stepped forward.

"You attacked us." The Rhino said with a snarl. "That makes us enemies."

"No harm was intended." The voice replied easily.

"Harm was done!" The Rhino retorted. "Or do you deny it?"

"No harm was intended." The voice replied.

"Harm was done." The Rhino shook his head and sighed. "We are enemies."

"It was…regrettable." The voice said after a moment. "No harm was intended. It was planned and executed so no one would be harmed."

"When a Tenno falls unconscious off a fifth floor balcony…" The Rhino snarled, his patience nearly gone. "It is kind of fatal! And we will not allow you Orokin scum to take our sister as you have taken so many others!" Nikis looked at him and then looked away. "You _knew_…" the Rhino said slowly. "And you said nothing?" He demanded, irate.

"Richard, they were _dead_." The Nekros said quietly. "If they had been asked, I bet all of them would have…" He went still as the Rhino seemed to swell. "Richard…"

"I wondered…" The Rhino said slowly. "I wondered how an outsider could have possibly known how to find the Vault and the databanks. How they would have been able to access it so quickly." The Nekros did not move and the Rhino had his answer. "Why Nikis? _Why_?" He demanded.

"I was trying to help Kalina, Richard." The Nekros said quietly. "I thought she was lost in a dream world. I… I was trying to wake her. She asked for my memories of the place. I didn't know it wasn't _her_ asking, but these machine scum. Not until ti was too late. I… didn't know she was gone completely, that the scum who run this place had destroyed her mind."

"We did not." The monotone voice replied. "She was that way when she arrived. We have done what we can for her."

"Sure." Nikis snapped. "Experimented on her. Abused her. Manipulated her DNA to make copies of Tenno." Dustin paled, but remained silent. "And when that didn't work? You played God."

"The end justifies the means." The voice retorted evenly. "Will you submit?" Instead of answering, Nikis lashed out and a drone was sent careening into a wall where it shattered into a dozen pieces. A second blow smashed another. Dustin reached up and swatted two in quick succession before retreating back to seiza.

"You have made me a traitor!" Nikis snapped. "No, I will never help you again." Dustin nodded emphatically where he knelt.

"Nikis…" The Prime said softly. "No. There is a better way." The Rhino knelt slowly on the floor in the middle of the group and nodded as Nikis did the same. "By the Code… we refuse to aid those who play with the Technocyte virus."

"Refusal is irrelevant." The voice replied evenly. "You are needed. You will serve."

"No, we won't." The Rhino retorted. "The end does not always justify the means." With that, he retreated from his physical shell, ignoring the demands from the drone. Willing himself to die. He felt Nikis and Dustin start to follow suit. But…

A small hand grasped at his, pulling it from his lap.

"Please don't be mad, sir." The little girl's voice said as _something_ pulled him back to his body. "I can't let you go. I can't. Please don't be mad…" She begged him. He stared down into the faceplate of a Nyx warframe. Or… a miniature version of one. "We need you. We all need you. We don't know what to do."

"Aw crap…" Nikis sighed. "They woke up…" A dozen small forms were crowding into the room now, all swarming around Richard and Nikis. A small Trinity and small Excalibur hugged Dustin who frowned, but then sighed and relaxed from the biofeedback that would have killed him.

The Rhino sighed as well. "This is not a good thing. Do you have a name?" He asked the tiny Nyx.

"Ona." The girl said with a nod. "My name is Ona." She sounded upset and without intending to, he was holding her as she shuddered. "I don't want to be bad. I didn't want to do it! They made me."

"Ah, what a tangled web we weave…" The Rhino said quietly. "Kill ourselves and leave these young pseudo Tenno alone, or submit to whatever evil these scum demand?" He shook his head. "Darling…" He patted her hand. "Can you do something for me? You and the others?"

"They said you would lead us." The girl said, sobbing sounds coming from her helmet now. "We have been so scared…"

"No need to be now." Richard said quietly. Nikis looked at him and Richard snorted. "And no, we will not submit." A strangled electronic sound came from the drone, but the Rhino ignored it. "Repeat after me, girl… 'Tenno serve. They do not rule'." The girl stilled in his arms and he set her down, slowly easing her legs into the proper posture of seiza. "All of you… repeat after me… 'Tenno Serve, we do not Rule'."

The other children knelt as well, Nikis and Dustin helping some of them to sit properly. Then they all spoke the words that began the Tenno Code.

"No!" The electronic voice demanded. "Submit!"

"Tenno do not submit." The First Rhino said with a small laugh. "And you are an _idiot_. Children… welcome to your new life."

"As Tenno."


	17. Chapter 17

**Kinfolk**

"_Children_…" Bellina sounded somewhere between wonder and horror as the Prime came out of his memories. All of the others in the room were standing in stances of bewilderment and worry. Kori and Mavri both looked poleaxed. Bellina recovered from her shock first. "What happened to them?"

"Doc?" The Rhino… -No. He had to face it. His name was Richard. - _Richard_ asked.

"I cannot find any intact memory clusters anywhere near that area." The Volt who was the medical professional said after a moment of perusing his consoles. "Someone made a right mess of your memory, but… It… isn't _quite_ our techniques. Close. But not quite." Richard sighed and the Volt nodded sympathetically. "We know more than we did."

"Is there _anything?_" Richard nearly begged. The doctor sighed and started scanning closer. Finally, after several anxious minutes he nodded.

"Yes." The doctor agreed. "With nothing for comparison, I cannot tell how long in between the previous memory and this one. But this cluster is readable."

"Okay." Richard said with a sigh as he sat back. "Let's…" Pain lanced through his skull and he could do nothing but scream as the memory took hold and…

* * *

><p><strong>The past<strong>

"Resistance is futile, Tenno." The same hated voice sounded as Richard fought the pain that seared through his mind and body. Whoever was running this hellish place did not take his resistance kindly. Not at all. He tried his bonds again, but they were well beyond his ability to break without access to any of his warframe systems. "You cannot win."

"Neither can _you_." Richard grated out as the pain increased again and yet again. He wasn't on the ship anymore. He and the others had been subdued by some kind of gas and he had woken here. Wherever here was. It wasn't a ship. "Tenno do not submit, you stupid machine!"

"Stop!" Richard went still as the pain suddenly ended and a form appeared. A familiar form! The human who had come saying he was the Emperor's representative before attacking the Citadel with nanobots.

"You!" Richard shouted. "You lying, murderous scum!" The human hung his head and nodded.

"No harm was intended." The man replied. "But harm was done. We need your help."

"_My_ help?" Richard could not restrain a laugh. "You have an odd way of asking for _help_, slimeball. The _only_ thing I am going to give you is my _fist_ through your _face_."

"I understand your anger, Tenno." The human said with a sigh. "But time is not on our side here. We need you. We will have you aid. One way or another."

"The same way you took _Kalina's_ help?" Richard had seen the still form of Nikis' wife once. She had seemed more machine than woman. "Wipe my mind too? Take my brain out too?"

"We didn't do that." The human retorted. "We tried to help her!"

"By using her as an unknowing incubator." Richard's voice turned very flat now. "I see. You are dead. You and every one of your accomplices are _dead_." His tone did not change, but the intensity factor suddenly went through the ceiling. The human actually recoiled from the bound Rhino. "If you beg, I might kill you quickly. If not…?" The Rhino shrugged as best he could.

"This was not what we intended." The human said with a sigh. "Look, Richard… May I call you Richard?"

"No." The bound Tenno replied. "My name is for friends and people I am not going to kill." The pleasantness in his voice was utterly at odds with his words. "Not content to play with the virus, no… You had to play with the dead too. Just like all of you lying Orokin scum. The souls of the dead are not enough. You have to desecrate their bodies too."

"It's not like that." The human shook his head. "We are not _playing_, we are _engineering_. It is all bio science."

"That is what the _CIA_ thought." The Rhino retorted. The human stared at him, confused and the Rhino snorted. "The ones who _started_ this whole mess. Way back, even before the Empire was founded. You are repeating the _exact same_ mistakes that were made long, long ago. You can't even _screw up_ in an original fashion. You stupid scum _have_ to copy others."

"You are going to help us." The human sighed deeply. "We would prefer your willing assistance."

"I am sure you would." The Rhino agreed. "But I hope you don't mind if I tell you to **** off, you illegitimate son of a female kubrow."

"So be it." The human said with a wince. "We will use you. What is left of you." He turned to a console nearby and spoke evenly. "Full wipe. For all of them. We will use the breeder and…" Whatever else he was going to say was cut off when the room rumbled. "What…?" He demanded.

"Alert!" An automated female voice sounded. "Facility under attack!"

"What the-?" The human demanded. "Who? Show me!" A screen lit up nearby and the Rhino started laughing as he saw the easily identifiable forms of his fellow Tenno on it, slaughtering everything in their way. "No!" He exclaimed.

"I think your time just ran out." The Rhino said with a snort. "Have fun for the rest of your life. However long that is. I bet it won't be long."

"This area is separate and sealed." The man snapped as the floor rumbled again. "No!" He screamed as several humans fell, cut down by Tenno swords. "They can't! Not now!"

"You reap what you sow." The Rhino said sadly. "And you sowed hate. Enjoy your harvest, _fool_."

"We are done with this." The man snapped. "The doors have sealed. We are secure. Send a distress call." He said to the machine. "And wipe this fool."

"I may be a fool." The Rhino admitted. "But I am _really_ glad not to be in your shoes." The man cursed and hit controls.

The Rhino was laughing as energy played over his helmet. He was laughing as darkness dragged him under.

_No…_ The soft voice in the Rhino's mind was familiar. _We will not let them do this. _The young Nyx.

_Ona… _The Rhino couldn't be sure where the voice was coming from or where his was going. _Get… away…_

_We cannot. _The tiny version of a Tenno said softly, but her tone was rock hard as well. _We are bound to you. If you fall, so do we._

_No. _The Rhino begged. _No. I can't… I can't let them hurt you…_

_They… We… We cannot hold… I… _Ona's voice faded, but then she gasped as another voice sounded and … something shielded Richard from the darkness shrouding him.

_We have protected your mind as best we could. _The voice seemed to Ona, but… older? No… it _wasn't_ Ona now. It was another. One that Richard _knew! Hello Richard. _The voice turned kind.

_Nyx! _Richard pleaded. _Help the kids!_

_We cannot. _The First Nyx said into the darkness inside Richard's skull. _That is beyond our power. __**They**__ are beyond our power. But you of all people know that Tenno help themselves out of fixes._

_I am sorry. _Richard felt his resolve fade away. _I tried to guide our kin. I failed them. I failed them all. I failed you…_

_You didn't. _Nyx reassured him. _You did the best you could. But Richard… it isn't slavery. _The Rhino went still and Nyx sighed. _We are given a choice. We who remain took it._

_What have I done? _Richard begged. But then… something changed. He could feel minds. Many minds. Most quiescent. _What… the…?_

_Every army needs a general. _Another familiar voice, strong and male this time. Also familiar.

_Hayden…_ Richard begged. _Oh my god… tell me this __**isn't**__ what I think it is…_

_I wish I could, brother. _Hayden sounded sad now. _They are… preparing their new Tenno to be subservient. To you._

_No. No, no, no, no… _Richard snapped. _Kill me. Now! You can here! Do it!_

_Richard… _Hayden's voice was somber now. _I… I can't do that._

_I WILL NOT BREAK THE CODE! _Richard screamed in his mind. _**I will not rule!**__ Hayden! Kill me!_

_Richard… _Hayden's voice was soft and sad now. _I… As you wish. _Something gathered inside the Rhino's mind. Something dark and terrible.

_No!_ This was Nikis. Somehow he was here too. _You can't! Richard! Don't!_

_Nikis, get your kid and get out of here! _Richard snapped. _You cannot save me. Or Kalina._

_I… _The Nekros sounded close to tears. _I know. Richard… I betrayed you. I…_

_It wasn't you. _Richard corrected him gently. _Save the kids if you can. But get out of here before the rest of our kin arrive._

_They are here. _Nikis sounded very upset now. _They are stymied by a set of blast doors and.. Oh my god! No!_ He screamed. _No! Don't!_

_What? _Richard demanded.

_The… The Royal Guard just arrived…_ Nikis' voice was a pale copy of his normal self now. _They came in shooting… Jan… Lando, Histo… Mia… They are dead…_ Richard recoiled.

_I… I started a civil war… _Richard said weakly. _I… No…_ His sense of self faded.

_It wasn't you._ Hayden and Nyx both said in unison.

_The responsibility is mine._ Richard said, his sense of self strengthening. _My life is forfeit. Hayden…_

_No! _Nikis' voice turned savage now and Richard could only scream as… something happened.

Suddenly, Richard was watching from the side as the night black Nekros warframe strode into the room where the human was slamming keys on his console.

"What?" The human managed to say and then screamed as the Nekros reached out with a slow, slow hand and touched the man on the brow.

"You." The voice was Nikis, but… not. As dark and terrible as Hayden could be, Richard felt both Hayden and the First Nyx retreat from the sudden flash of power that sang from the Nekros. Dark power. Terrible power. _Soul_ power, the Rhino realized in horror. But… from where? "You have transgressed most sore this day, human."

_Nikis… Don't…_ Richard begged in the stillness he was trapped in.

He could only watch as dark orange energy trailed from the human's now shuddering form into the Nekros' outstretched hand.

"_Five_ of my kin are now _dead_ so that you and your sycophants could play _God_. Not counting the Royal Guard who may not live." The voice was flat. Emotionless. Nothingness hovered deep inside that voice –pure nothingness, total abnegation- and Richard could see a puddle start to form around the human's feet. "But you will not die so _quickly_. So cleanly…" Nikis said with a totally dead snarl. "You will pay for your crimes. We can only kill humans if they are caught playing with the Virus. Your sycophants have paid the price, but you… All you have done is torture Richard. You yourself did not play with the virus."

"It was… for Orokin…" The man managed to gasp out somehow, then he screamed as Nikis lashed out with an armored boot. It connected to the man's pelvis with a crack. He fell in a sobbing heap.

"I am taking my brother and the poor souls you have... manufactured." Nikis said firmly. He stepped on the man's broken hips and the man squealed in agony. "If I see you again… I will take the rest of what I just sampled…"

"Freeze!" Richard quailed as a quintet of guards -human guards- appeared. "Stand down, Tenno!"

"_Make me_." Nikis turned his back on the sobbing, puling mass on the floor and scrutinized the guards. "You were all so quick to dismiss me as a threat. Your mistake."

"You have no power, Tenno." The guard who had spoken snapped, aiming a Braton Prime rifle at the Nekros.

"Correction." Nikis' voice was soft now. "I _had_ no power. Now I do. You want to live… drop the weapons. Now."

"You can't hurt…" Whatever else the guard was going to say was cut off as a pulse of power flew from one of Nikis' gauntlets to slam into the man and toss him off his feet. He screamed and the remaining guards quailed further.

"Watch me. I am _through_ being nice." Nikis said quietly but firmly. "I am _through_ being polite. I am through helping you slime. I am taking my brother and the kids and leaving. You have two choices, _live_ or _die_." From his tone, he didn't _care_ which they chose.

"You cannot fight us all." Another guard shifted his stance in preparation to fire.

"I don't have to." Nikis said absently as the room suddenly became crowded. Richard felt faint as he saw Hayden, Nyx, Mag, Trinity, Ember, Ash, Nova, and Frost… _All_ of the First Tenno. Transparent golden forms. Called into being by terrible power. All standing beside Nikis… Who had been the _First_ _Nekros_ before he had cast aside that title after training others in the ways of Guardians of the Dead. "You have angered us. _All_ of us. Flee or pay the price, fools."

"What is it going to be, fellas?" Hayden said, his Glaive hanging slack at his side. Only trained eyes would see the readiness in his taut frame. "We haven't got all day."

"They are just holograms!" One of the guards fired, but his rifle was suddenly in the air and being crushed into a ball of metal. And then he was in the air and slowly compacting into a screaming ball himself. Mag stood nearby, her arm raised.

"Let me have him, darling." Nikis drawled. "Too quick your way." Mag looked at him and then the screaming guard landed in a boneless heap at Nikis' feet. His scream rose in pitch and suddenly died with him as the Nekros sucked his life force out. "You were _saying?_" He asked, sarcasm dripping.

"No…" Richard managed to croak. "Nikis… don't…"

"It's okay, Richard." The Rhino felt his guts turn to water as another form appeared nearby. The Zephyr warframe was battered and torn, and her helmet gaped open, showing terrible wounds. "Let him do what he must." Nikis made a noise of pain and the Zephyr bowed slightly to him. "You did help me, my love. And now… you have freed me to join our kin. We will wait for you." She had a sad smile in her voice now. "Both of you."

"Kalina… I…" Richard felt something change and he was falling…

* * *

><p>Richard snapped awake to a silent room. Bellina stared at him and then she slowly bowed her head. All of the others did likewise.<p>

"Nothing more." The doctor finally broke the silence.

"I… I am some kind of… control…" Richard said weakly. "Kori… Mavri… I don't know… You cannot take the chance." His words were to Bellina who shook her head.

"Where there is life, there is hope, my husband." Bellina said quietly. "But now… we need to take the others home and see what is stored in those secured archives." She slumped a bit. "And face justice for our rebellion."

"Bellina…" Richard rose from the chair and strode to where Bellina sat, tears falling like rain now. "If it is anyone's fault, it was the one who infiltrated and attacked us. And he paid. You say he was executed?" he asked Mavri.

"He was… a mess." Mavri said dryly. "Gibbering in fear and babbling nonstop. It took some time to get coherent answers from him, but the Royal Guard were persistent. Knowing Nikis as I do… I cannot say I am surprised. That old curmudgeon _defines_ vindictive."

"That he does." Richard agreed. "We will need to ask him how I wound up in the Void with my axe."

"He may not answer." Kori said quietly. "Or be _able_ to answer."

"Point." The Rhino said with a groan. "Time?" He asked Rachel who nodded.

"Portals are charged." She said with a nod. "Shall we?" She asked Bellina.

"Time to end this." Bellina looked around and all the Tenno shared a nod. "Tenno do not surrender, but… this is not a normal situation by any stretch of the imagination. If we fight kin… no matter who wins, we all lose. We surrender to you, Elder Mavri."

"I…" Mavri swallowed hard. "I accept your surrender." He slumped a bit. "This is not how I often imagined meeting my ancestors." A sad chuckle went around the room. "Kori?" He asked.

"I stand with my brother's people." Kori said quietly. "You have my surrender as well." Carlos laid a hand on her arm and she smiled a bit forlornly as he nodded.

"Richard?" Mavri asked after a moment.

"I am with them." Richard said formally. "Bellina, will you be okay to come with us?"

"Try and stop me." The chair bound woman said snidely as another chuckle swept the room.

"No." Richard said with a booming laugh. "I am not that stupid." The Tenno filed from the room quietly. Carlos remaining beside Kori as she walked. "Kori? Your warframe?" He asked as Bellina started her chair off and he matched its pace.

"A warframe does not make a Tenno." Kori said calmly. "Besides, they damaged it getting it off me, so I will deal. No matter what, we are not going to fight."

"I will not make you surrender your weapons." Mavri said softly. "Your word is enough."

"You honor us, Elder." Bellina said quietly as the cavalcade entered another room, one filled with hover gurneys. "Everyone take a gurney." She commanded. Richard found himself taking the controls of a gurney on which Mary lay silent. Now the line of Tenno entered another room, a familiar one. The room that Richard had entered the facility in.

"Who is going to lock up?" Richard quipped as the group made themselves ready.

"The security systems will go live as soon as we leave." Bellina said mildly. "Anyone else trying to enter will get fried." Richard nodded and looked to where Rachel stood by a control, glancing from Bellina to Richard and back. He shrugged and nodded to Bellina. She smiled a bit wistfully. "Let's go. We have a schism to end."

The room glowed golden and then…

"Nikis!" The name exploded from several throats as they materialized. The pitch black Nekros lay sprawled where he had fallen. From the several hole in his warframe, he wasn't going to get up any time soon. The dozen Prime warframes turned as one with the white Rhino, the black Banshee, the Excalibur Prime and the Frost Prime who was doing… something near one wall. All raised weapons.

_Oh… Shit_


	18. Chapter 18

**The Honorable Choice**

"Stand down." Mavri's calm and clear words cut through the sudden tension like a knife. The Prime warframes that had accompanied him from the Citadel all relaxed a bit, but not completely, as the _other_ Prime warframes did _not_ lower their weapons. The Rhino Prime did not move from in front of Bellina's life support chair. "No one wants a fight. Not here, surrounded by civilians. Karl. What happened?"

"Mavri." Karl's tone was careful. "Where have you been?"

"To the Citadel of the First." Mavri said calmly. Karl jerked. He and the others of his clan slowly lowered their weapons. The Royal Guard… did not. "I found out some things there. Some things that trouble me greatly."

"How do we know you have not been…?" Karl paused and Mavri hissed in sour amusement. "What?" He demanded.

"I _have_ been influenced." Mavri admitted. "I learned… things that bother me a great deal. But… These surrendered to me." At _that_, the room went completely still. "They want to end the rift, Karl."

"A rift I knew nothing about until just recently." Karl admitted. "Some… secrets are too shameful to be common knowledge."

"Secrets kill." Bellina said quietly. "We must end this travesty. This blot on our honor. But… What happened to Nikis?"

"I don't know." Karl said with a sigh. "He was down when we got here. No sign of who did it. We have been trying to bring him back." The white Rhino turned to scrutinize the woman in the powered chair. "Do I know you?"

"No." Bellina said sadly. "My name is Bellina." Again, the room went hushed. She shook her head. "Rachel. The nanites." Her words were a command and the Saryn Prime nodded and stepped towards a wall panel only to pause a several rifles tracked her. Bellina shook her head again. "We can deactivate them. Will you let us?" She asked the Royal Guard.

"Why should we trust you?" A Royal Guard Saryn Prime asked sternly.

"Because… what we did was wrong." Bellina said quietly. "We were attacked. We retaliated. We lost kin, _you_ lost kin." The Guardswoman staggered back a step and Bellina nodded. "It is not your fault, Guardswoman, what happened. I think it was ours."

"No…" The Guardswoman replied uneasily. "Those we sent opened fire without talking. They should have talked. To this day…we do not know why they fired first." Richard went still and she looked at him. "Yes?"

"This is…" The Prime shook his head. "This is too big to be a simple misunderstanding. Someone… _made_ this happen. But…_why_?" All eyes were on him now and he shook his head. "This stinks to high heaven. Why would someone set Tenno against Tenno?"

"That was never the intention." Everyone went still as another voice sounded. From _nowhere_. It was… hard to define. Neither male nor female.

"Who _are_ you?" Richard demanded, staring about. "_Where_ are you?"

"Who?" The voice asked, amused. "Who is but the _form_, following the function of _what_. And _what_ I am is a disembodied voice."

"Well, duh." Kori snapped. "We _know_ that." Then she…collapsed. The voice made a clucking noise.

"Silly girl. Learn your place." The voice ordered as Kori screamed and writhed from the floor. "Rebellion will not be tolerated."

"Stop!" Richard shouted. "If you have a quarrel, take it up with _me_!"

"Silly paladin…" The voice said with a sour sigh. "I have no quarrel with my minions. You are…- " The voice trailed off and then shouted "Hey! _Stop that!_" The Frost Prime who had been quietly doing… something straightened and the voice vanished in a hiss of static.

"Olim?" Karl demanded as Richard and Carlos knelt by Kori who was sobbing quietly. The Volt who served as a doctor for the First came up as well.

"A _powerful_ control signal." The Frost Prime reported. "Sent through the nanites. I have it blocked, for now. Whoever that was… will probably try again."

"Bellina, Rachel! Kill the nanites!" Richard snapped, holding Kori as the doc scanned her. Rachel nodded and moved to stand by Olim. She started taking quietly and the Frost Prime started nodding. "Doc?" He asked as the Volt sat back on his heels.

"Whatever hit her did a lot of damage." The Volt said quietly. "I… if I didn't know better… I would say her warframe was hacked… but…"

"I am not _in_ a warframe…" Kori said weakly. "That… isn't possible…"

"Your body is an organic machine." The Volt said uneasily. "But yeah, that shouldn't have been possible." He started scanning again.

"Easy." Carlos reassured Kori as she sobbed. "Its okay, Kori." Richard shifted her so her brother could hold her.

"Took control… Took control from me…" Kori wept into the Oberon's arms. "I… I thought I was past this…"

"How the hell could someone take control of an organic body?" Karl had moved up and was staring down at the weeping Tenno. Richard looked down at Kori and then at Bellina who paled.

"Is Nikis alive?" Richard asked after a moment. "I have questions for him."

"He is." The Trinity said quietly. "But deeply unconscious. What do you know?" She demanded. "You know something about how this just happened and why. What?"

"I… can't say." Richard said uneasily. "_None_ of us can. But… if that… _person_ called Kori a 'minion'… Bellina…" He pleaded.

"_Why_ can't you say?" Karl asked, his hand on his shotgun.

"Because I don't have all of the information." Richard replied quietly. "And until I do… anything I say or _do_ may cause far more problems than it solves." He looked at the Royal Guard. "What do you know of how I wound up in the Void?" More than one of the Prime warframes recoiled under his scrutiny. "Or are _you_ sworn to silence too?" He asked sourly. None of them would meet his gaze and he sighed deeply. "I see." He slumped. "What the _hell_ did Nikis and I _do_?"

"Saved lives." The Royal Guard Saryn Prime sounded almost in awe. "I… We can say no more."

"Do _you_ know anything about whoever just attacked Kori?" Karl demanded with a growl. She shook her head and the other Royal Guards did likewise. "Of _course_ not…" Karl groused. "That would be too easy."

"Kori needs medical attention." The Volt said quietly as he rose. "She is stable, for now. But she needs more than I can provide here." He stepped to where Alicia was still working on the fallen Nekros. "Status?" They started conversing quietly.

"I um…" Karl shook his head, trying to come to grips with the sudden changes. "Bellina?" He asked the chair bound woman. "_The_ Bellina?"

"Don't start, boy." The ancient Tenno woman said sourly. "Just… Don't go there. We have bigger problems. My own sordid history isn't germane here."

"Okay…" Karl said with a gulp. He turned to the Rhino Prime who nodded. "Did you find what you sought?"

"Parts of it." Richard said with a shrug. "I _was_ Richard." Karl inhaled sharply and Richard sighed. "I don't _remember_ being him but the evidence is pretty conclusive."

"Do I bow or salute?" Karl joked, only to pause as Richard growled. "What?"

"I… may have been set up as a control." Richard said, choosing his words with care. "By whoever set up this rift. If that is the case, then any Tenno I come into contact with may be vulnerable." Karl inhaled sharply and Richard nodded. "Now I understand why Hayden was going to kill me." At that, everything went still and he shook his head. He turned to the Royal Guard who had all frozen, hands on weapons that had not –quite- returned to rest. "If I do… start doing… _anything_… off… You know what to do." He said quietly. "Make it quick and clean."

"_Richard!_" Bellina protested.

"Bellina." Richard said with feeling. "We _cannot_ take the chance. If I… control people… then any who come close to me are at risk. Mavri?" He looked at the Elder who nodded slowly.

"We need to get my people awake and aware." Mavri said with a sigh. "Get some support up and running. Then we can worry about… other problems. Get Kori some help and Nikis as well. What hit him?" He asked Alicia.

"Three rounds, center mass." Alicia sounded very worried. "It's like… he didn't move as he was shot. Which makes no sense at _all_. I mean… he has survived things that the rest of us can only have nightmares of." She shook her head. "Why would he stand there and let someone shoot him?"

"He didn't." A small, sad voice sounded from the side and everyone who had them raised weapons as a tiny form appeared from an air duct. It was… Richard went still. It was the Nyx from his memory!

"Ona?" Richard stammered. "Is that you?"

"You…?" The tiny Nyx sounded scared now. "You remember?"

"Only little bits." Richard said softly. "What did I do?"

"Saved us all." The tiny Nyx said sadly. "You saved us all. Please…" She begged the other Tenno. "I… don't want to hurt anyone. We are trying to… _No!_" She screamed as another form appeared nearby. This one was…

It… wasn't a warframe. It was… dirty. Bellina hissed as she saw it. All of the Tenno had frozen on seeing it and… Richard gave a scream as it raised a weapon and shot Bellina.

_You were Chosen._ The voice from before sounded again, triumphant this time. _You are Chosen again._

"No!" Bellina screamed as energy played around her form. Richard took a step towards her and the odd not-quite-a-warframe form nodded to him. "I…" Her voice trailed off in a scream of agony as her body vanished in a golden tinted haze that was… off somehow.

_We learned our lesson, Rhino._ Richard was on motion. Too late. The other Tenno were still training weapons on the odd form as it shot him and his world dissolved into agony.

* * *

><p><em>Wake.<em> The voice came from nowhere and everywhere.

Richard slammed awake. He was lying on something that yielded beneath him. His warframe was…dampened somehow. He stared around wildly.

"_Bellina!_" He screamed. "What have you done to my wife?"

_She is… damaged._ The voice said quietly. _We are rebuilding her._

"As a slave?" Richard snapped. He tried to rise and couldn't. He stared down and ropy tendrils of fleshy matter were wrapped around his warframe. "You are _dead_, do you hear me? _Dead_!"

_Technically, yes I am._ The voice sounded a bit amused now. _But death is such a __primitive__ concept. There will be time for philosophical study later, my First. For now… Relax. Let us help you._

"**** you!" Richard screamed as something lowered down over his head. He fought against whatever held him, but couldn't move as much as a muscle as his head was engulfed. Then all he could do was scream into the silence of his mind as it was invaded.

_Calm down, Rhino. Richard._ The voice said into his head. _You will not be harmed. I need to see what they did to damage the control. You should have been able to take control of any as soon as you woke. Silly children. Burying you in the Void was merely a delay. Nothing more._

_Leave… those kids… alone! _Richard screamed silently.

_They are not kids._ The voice retorted. _They are weapons. And… what? _The voice sounded dumbfounded now. _No!_ It screamed as the world fell away.

* * *

><p>"Master Richard…" Ona was crying. It hurt Richard to hear her cry. He struggled to wake. "Please… wake up…" She begged. "We need you."<p>

"What…?" Richard shook himself hard and found himself lying on a floor. No. This was a virtual world. Ona Knelt beside him, her warframe shuddering with tears she could not physically shed. "Ona? What happened?"

"The enemy has made his move." Ona said sadly. "For so long he has crept in shadows, subverting, tricking. Now he has come out. Just as you predicted. You… You brought him into the open. Just like you said your reappearance would."

"I… _planned_ this?" Richard felt as if he had been sucker punched. He stared to shiver and couldn't stop.

"No." Ona laid a hand on his arm and his shudders quieted. "You planned to draw the enemy out where the other Tenno could deal with him. Hayden?" She begged and the form of the First appeared nearby, his head bowed. "Help?" She pleaded.

"You… know him…" Richard knew, on some level, that he was going into shock. Too many emotional shocks. Or… something.

"Your plan, Richard." Hayden said quietly. "We knew the Enemy would return. Just not _when_. It took them a long, long time. Then the Orokin threw a monkey wrench into the works when they took the tools that the Enemy made and turned them into real Tenno. Not without hiccups." He said with a slightly strained grin. "But Nikis was a very good teacher." He knelt down and laid hand on Richard as well. The Rhino's shudders eased.

"So… the Tenno Emulation Project…" Richard mused.

"Succeeded." Hayden shook his head. "Not how I had envisioned getting kin. And the road was rocky. But we took the Enemy's weapon from him and made it our own. Our kin. All of them." His other hand caressed the tiny Nyx's head. The Nyx leaned into the caress like a cat.

"Why kill me?" Richard said and then paused. "Oh. I am a danger. Still." If he was intended as a control mechanism…

"What better bait for a monster than what that monster needs to take control?" Hayden asked reasonably. "That was the argument that you used to sway us. We… didn't want to do it. The kids are marvelous. You trained them well, Richard."

"Ona?" Richard asked the girl. No. She wasn't a girl. She was small, but not a girl.

"A dozen of us survived to flee with you and Nikis." Ona bowed her head in memory. "We fled to the Void. You knew of a hidden place there. A safe place. You made us a home. Once you had us situated… We tried to get you home, but… we couldn't…"

"They had cut all contact." Richard said sadly. "My doing."

"No." Hayden sighed. "It wasn't any single person's fault, Richard. Let go of this self-hate. It wasn't you. It wasn't me. It was the Enemy."

"But… why?" Richard asked. "I can see them attacking us. Subverting us if they could. But… why sunder the Tenno from the Orokin?" Then he shook his head as horrific realization dawned. 'Chosen'. The voice had called Bellina 'Chosen'. Just like once before. "Oh no… No…"

"I am afraid so, Richard." Hayden said sadly. "And the Tenno of this time have no clue how to fight him –them-. They will fight. That is what they do."

"And they will _die_." Richard said flatly. "Or worse." Hayden nodded. "Can you… block the control?"

"What do you think we have _been_ doing?" Ona demanded tartly, startling a laugh out of Richard who nodded. "I don't know how long we can hold it."

"Okay." Richard said quietly. "Ona, hold it as long as you can without harming yourselves. Hayden, when their block fails, you know what to do." Hayden bowed his head and Richard snarled at him. "Do not falter, my old friend. You know what is at stake."

"I do." Hayden agreed. "Now?"

"Now."

* * *

><p>The room had changed. The ropy mass held the Rhino warframe off the ground and sickly green energy was playing over it.<p>

_Back with us, I see._ The voice sounded triumphant. _You cannot win, Rhino. Submit._

_All this time and you still don't know much about Tenno, do you?_ Richard asked in his mind. His voice wasn't working still. _Once an idiot, always an idiot, I guess._

_You will belong shortly, Rhino. _The voice changed to an approximation of gentle. Not quite right. It sent trickles of fear up and down the Rhino's spine. _You will learn to enjoy the feeling._

_Have you killed Bellina yet? _The Rhino demanded.

_She is…resisting but the change is in process. Repairs have been done._ The voice sounded glad._ It cannot be stopped now. She will serve. _

_No. _Richard said as he focused his mind. Somehow, he knew what to do. _No she won't._

_What are you…? No! _The voice screamed as power flared and the energy around him suddenly became a torrent of pain. Pain that suddenly faded. _No! No!_

_**Arise. Rhino.**_ This… wasn't the other voice. It… sounded like Richard's own voice. But… not.

Suddenly Richard was free of the ropy tentacles. They grasped at him and the axe that was suddenly in his hand cut them like butter. The golden Scindo was intimately familiar. It was his. It was… _He_ was… Whole. Not Richard. No. Rhino.

"I have had… just about enough from you." Rhino said sourly as he slammed his foot down. Every mass of flesh in the small room quivered and froze as time fractured from the force of his Stomp. He hacked into it with abandon. "How does it feel, monster? How does it feel to hurt as you have hurt so many?"

An inhuman scream sounded as Rhino slammed into more and more of the fleshy matter. Finally, one bit gave and he stepped forward into a larger room. His heart plummeted as he saw Bellina lying on a table, her body encased in a horribly familiar suit. He had seen her like that before. After her experiments had taken them through a golden portal and into horror beyond human comprehension. She jerked on the table and then rose, but… her face was empty. Just as he remembered.

_You will serve._ The voice came from all around as from Bellina's mouth. But it wasn't his wife. Not anymore.

"Not hardly." The Rhino went still as several forms appeared around him. "He is not alone." Hayden Tenno said as the others of the First manifested beside their brother. Banshee, Excalibur, Volt, Saryn, Nova, Mag, Ember, Ash, Frost and Nyx all stood, weapons ready.

"You cannot win, Tenno. Not here. Not now." The voice snapped. Was that fear in it? Or triumph? Several forms appeared beside Bellina. A white Rhino, a black Banshee, a white and blue Trinity and a golden Excalibur Prime. All were struggling in whatever held them. "How many of your kin will you kill?"

"None." Rhino said as he dropped his axe. "You still have no clue what you are playing with…"

"Mezner."


	19. Chapter 19

**Reunion**

Rhino's axe vanished before it hit the floor. He knew it would be available for him if he needed it. But… he didn't. Not here. Not now.

_You surrender. Good._ The voice said in glee. _Fighting only prolongs the pain._

"No one said anything about surrendering, fool." Rhino said as he knelt in seiza. "You are… so limited. Always so limited. You take and you hurt, you plan and you plot. But in the end? You fail. Every single time. Because all that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing. And for as long as you exist, there _will_ be good men and women to stand against you. Good _Tenno_ to stand against you. Karl." He nodded to the white Rhino who jerked and fell from whatever had been holding him. "Step away."

"What?" The enraged other Tenno snapped. "I will…" He moved to draw a weapon but the Mag Prime beside the kneeling Rhino pulled him away from the others. "What the hell?"

"Don't do _anything_ or I will hurt you." The First Mag snapped. "We are trying to save your _life_, fool."

"Mag." Hayden said mildly. Mag snorted, but turned to focus on the others.

"Alicia." The kneeling Rhino intoned and the Trinity fell free as well. Mag pulled her to the group and they closed ranks around her as well. A trickle of foulness seeped into his mind and he fought it back grimly.

_No!_ The voice of what was apparently the origination of the horror of Infestation sounded shrilly. _My tools! My weapons! You cannot take what is mine!_

"They are not yours." Rhino said mildly. "Two." The black armored Banshee fell free as well, but then froze as the Excalibur Prime drew his Skana and held it at her throat. He was struggling, obviously trying to keep from harming his sister, but not in control of his actions. "Took you long enough, moron." The Rhino was still mild, not angry at all. "Be ready." He said to the Banshee who nodded, just a little.

"You cannot win!" The voice sounded from Bellina's throat now. Her body drew a cruel looking scythe and held it ready.

"Oh, I think we can." Rhino countered. "Will." The Excalibur Prime slammed into Two and threw them both bodily into the mass of other Tenno. "Well done, brother." Will rose, his skana in hand.

"Put it away." Hayden commanded. Will looked at him and then did as instructed. "If you draw weapons…"

"Cut us down." Karl said with conviction. Two and Alicia both nodded. "If that… thing took control… it can again." He looked at the kneeling Rhino. "How?"

"Gates swing both ways." The Rhino said as he tried to keep his focus. The trickle of foulness that was sweeping into his mind though was becoming a torrent. "I… Bellina…"

_This one is mine._ The voice from outside echoed the words from Bellina's mouth. _Body and soul. You cannot steal it from me. _She swung the scythe and the air hissed from the foul thing's wake.

"Nyx?" Rhino begged. The female Tenno focused herself and then sighed deeply and sadly.

"I am sorry, Rhino." The shade of the First Nyx said quietly. "I cannot sense her. She is gone. That… thing killed her. Or she killed herself."

"Six of one…" Rhino rose and his axe was back in hand. "…half dozen of the other." A great calm descended on him as he readied himself. "My fight."

"Rhino." Nyx said sadly.

"Protect the others, Nyx. Hayden… It was… an honor." More than one inhalation sounded from the others, but no one else spoke as Rhino stepped forward. "This ends here and now, you filthy excuse for a pile of diseased snail droppings! You _Mezner!_" He felt rather than saw the others vanish from wherever this was. This fight was his and his alone. But… not alone. As Bellina's body raised the scythe in a cross cut strike and he moved to block, Rhino felt a surge of power, of worry, of many different emotions, from many different minds. All focused on one thing and one thing only. The enemy in front of him. "Die!" He slammed into the other, body and soul one with his Scindo as he cleaved into the scythe.

But his strike was parried! He struck again and again, and each time, the scythe shed his axe strikes like water. And his opponent did not retaliate! He stepped back, axe up in a guard posture. Only one opponent had ever managed to deflect full power Scindo strikes from him. Only one knew his moves that well. And the one controlling Bellina was _not_ that one.

"I wondered." Rhino said quietly. "I wondered if you _were_ gone this time, Bellina. You are not."

"You must submit!" The voice snapped from all around. But Bellina's mouth did _not_ move. "You must! Citadel will rise and all will be made whole!"

"No." Rhino said sadly. "No, it won't. _You_ made that Ash attack Kori."

"That one was a distraction! She needed to be cleansed!" The voice snapped and the woman in front of him gasped as if in pain. "No! My tool!"

"R… Richard…" Bellina gasped. "Please…"

"I can't do it, Bellina." Rhino said quietly. "I can't strike you down." He sighed. "I am sorry. I can't do it."

"Then submit!" The voice from all around demanded.

"_Never._" Rhino and Bellina chorused as one. Her face creased in a smile that Rhino could not show. But he knew that she saw.

"Ri-…" Bellina started to speak and then gave a scream of pain as energy flared across her body. "No! I will not harm my husband! Go away, you lousy stupid _Mezner_!" Her face contorted in pain, but she locked her jaw and did not scream again.

"It's okay, Bellina." Rhino said quietly. "The door is open. Let's see what is on the other side." The woman's face in the dirty warframe-esque thing turned baffled for a moment, but then cleared as Rhino raised his axe.

"I never regretted anything but that." Bellina said softly. "The pain I caused you. My dear, sweet paladin." Her body shuddered as the scythe came up. "I am sorry. I am so, so sorry."

"It ended well." Rhino said, bowing his head. "I failed you once. I will not do so again." He stepped forward as Bellina's body began a clumsy overhand strike and did not parry as the blade came down. Bellina gave a shrill cry as the blade cleaved right through the massive armor of his shoulder, lodged in the bone there… and _stuck_. "Fooled you." He snapped as he jerked back and pulled the scythe from Bellina's hands. His hand came up, grasping the handle…

_YOU ARE MINE!_ The words echoed in Rhino's skull as power flowed from the scythe into him. He ignored it. _Submit!_

"You are a Mezner, but not the _true_ Mezner." Rhino said as he pulled the blade from his flesh. "_And_ you are an _idiot_. Tenno do _not_ submit. Even the ones you programmed fought I bet. How long did you torture that poor Ash to make him hunt Kori?" He tossed the blade aside as Bellina fell in a heap.

"He was eager to serve!" The voice snapped. "You will be too when we are done."

"Maybe he was." Rhino mused. "I remember Nik as a young hothead, but… They all said he was a bit unbalanced. Ah well…" Blood was falling down the front of his warframe, but he ignored it. "Bellina?" He asked as he knelt beside her.

"Too… much… too fast…" Bellina's weak voice answered him. "They… didn't fix my heart… not yet. Too… slow…"

"No." Rhino begged as banished his axe and gathered his wife up in his arms. "We can…"

"My time is done, Richard." Bellina said quietly. "I saw you again. It was…" Her hand came up slowly, so slowly to touch the faceplate of his warframe. "It was worth it." Her hand fell limp. Her eyes slowly closed and she sagged in his arms.

"We can repair her body." The voice said quickly. "It is not too late! We can save her!"

"No." Rhino said as he laid the still form down and slowly, so slowly eased her limbs into more comfortable positions. He watched and waited as her breathing slowed and then stopped. "No, you can't." Energy beams came from the ceiling and he blocked them with his bulk. "Leave her _alone_, you bastard!"

"We will repair that tool and refurbish you to serve." The voice said with conviction. "You will serve. All Tenno will serve. Citadel will rise and all will be well."

"You keep saying that." Rhino said with a grunt as the energy that was trying to reach Bellina's now totally still form increased in intensity. "But you don't mean it. All you will bring is death and destruction. Nothing more. That is all that madmen are ever good for."

"We will repair that form." The voice snapped, patience exhausted. A door hissed open nearby and something grabbed Rhino. He struggled, but even his prodigious strength was no match for the beams of energy that lifted him away from Bellina's still form. "You will be processed now." Another drone picked Bellina's still form up and lifted it as well, following.

"You will _try_." Rhino said sourly as he kept struggling despite the ironclad field that held him. "You will fail." He realized that the drone with Bellina had peeled off somewhere. It wasn't following now. "Your kind always do."

"You will serve and through you all Tenno will be controlled." The voice proclaimed as the drones carried him into a large room where a mound of flesh sat. Rhino shook his head the little he could. "The other will serve as well, once repairs are complete."

"I see you have no need to be original." Rhino commented as the drones laid him on a slab of stone before the massive fleshy throne on which sat a single humanoid. It looked… kind of like a warframe, but not quite. It was an odd mash. It had the arms of an Ash, the legs of a Loki, the chest of a Rhino and the head of a Frost. All looked decidedly…wrong. "Mezner, Jackson and now you… where did you Technocyte megalomaniacs get your set designs from? 'Nutcases 'R Us'?" Several huge tentacles were waving in the air now, some arcing towards him, but he ignored them, focusing on the form in the chair. "You are not a Tenno. That is some kind of fake suit. I guess it's like the Chosen bioframes. Garbage just like always." He made a yawning noise and the form jerked.

"We will rebuild the Origin System as it should have been." The form on the odd throne intoned. "We will make it all better. With the Tenno under our control, everything will be better." Even as one of the tentacles swung down to encompass Rhino's head, he sighed deeply. 'What?" The odd form demanded.

"You are _such_ an idiot." Rhino commented and then…

"I'll say." A new voice said calmly from nearby and Rhino felt something happen. A familiar whirring sound came and the tentacle that had been gripping his helmet fell away, cut cleanly in _half_. The fields holding him wavered and Rhino acted. He pulsed his shields and the pressor fields holding him down shattered like glass. He spun to his feet and paused. An Ember Prime warframe stood by the entrance he had been carried in through, an odd looking weapon in one hand and a just returned Glaive in the other. "Hello Rhino." She said, not taking her eyes off the form on the throne.

"Do I… know you?" Rhino asked slowly.

"We have never met." The Ember Prime said calmly as the Glaive vanished and she took hold of her odd rifle. "My name is Jasmina. And this kind of problem is sort of my job these days."

"You shouldn't be here." Rhino protested. "The Enemy can…" He paused. "Why isn't he taking control of you?"

"_It_ is trying." Jasmina emphasized the word 'it' heavily. "It is having some difficulty since I am… not _just_ Tenno anymore." Rhino tensed, but Jasmina shook her head. "Your fight, Rhino. I am just here to keep the playing field level. It is what Caretakers do, maintain the Balance."

Rhino nodded and then things happened quickly. A tentacle came slashing in and he met it with the axe that reappeared in his hand. And unearthly scream sounded as the tentacle fell limp like the other, then the remaining four started hurling globs of something nasty at Rhino who dodged and deflected each. He cut down a tentacle, then another. Then another. He took some nasty huts, but managed to stay out of the main blasts. On some unconscious level, he was aware of the Ember taking a direct hit from the green nastiness that one of the tentacles spewed and not reacting at all. What the hell? He threw his axe. It whirred through the air like a Glaive guided by his will slamming into the seated form and…

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" The voice snapped as the form in the seat wavered and vanished. Either an illusion of some kind or a puppet. Either way… "You will all serve!" Jasmina just shook her head and remained silent as Rhino's axe flew back to his hand. He caught it easily and flourished it.

"No." Rhino said mildly. "Actually I didn't. You _have_ to copy Mezner. It seems to be all you scum are capable of. Don't worry…" He mocked. "I know what I am doing."

"You will ruin everything!" The voice screamed. "Submit, let us take control and all will be well!"

"Tenno do not submit." Rhino replied evenly as the floor heaved. "And now… the main event…"

The huge from split and dozens of smaller forms appeared from fissures in it. Rhino shook his head on seeing them. Infected. Just as he had thought. The swarm of beings shied away from where Jasmina stood, but Rhino had no time to comment on that oddity as the tide descended on him. Then it was all hack and slash, parry and cut, spin and…

There were too many. Even Rhino could be outmatched and he was. Eventually he was pinned by sheer weight of numbers and his axe torn from his grip. Dozens, maybe a hundred of the Infected forms lay in pieces all around him as huge misshapen forms pressed him down, sapping his warframe's energy. Jasmina… didn't move.

"With you as the conduit, all Tenno will serve." The voice crowed in triumph as something started whirring nearby. Rhino bit back a scream as something bit into his helmet, then he felt pain as whatever was biting into his head passed his armor.

_Relax._ The voice was coming from inside his head now. A tidal wave of foulness roared into Rhino's mind and he was carried away by it. _You will submit now. You will be our gateway, our door._

_You… are… a **moron**…_ Rhino grated out through the pain that was increasing. _Doors swing… both…ways…_ An armored hand touched his and he laughed.

_What? _The voice demanded. _What do you…? Oh… no… NO!_

Rhino lay quiet as power soured into him from… somewhere. Incredible power. Power beyond anything he had ever imagined. It hurt, but only for a moment, the glittering golden energy pushing back the dark foulness in his mind without effort. An inhuman scream sounded and then Rhino was free.

He was lying on his back on the floor, scattered pieces of Infected all around him. He was weak. So weak. A hand found his.

"We can save you." Jasmina's voice came from close at hand. "Rhino, hold on." She pleaded.

"Bellina is waiting for me, Tenno Jasmina." Rhino said as he felt sensation leave his extremities. Not a good sign. "I am… a danger to all of our kin as I am."

"We can _help_ you!" Jasmina begged, tears in her voice.

"You did." Rhino said quietly. "Sister… come here…" His energy was fading. When it did… so would he. A hand found his and he gave it a squeeze. "Well done, sister."

"I did nothing but contain the enemy here." Jasmina protested. "_You_ fought them."

"A team is only as good as it's weakest link, sister." Rhino said soberly. "I was always a weak link." Jasmina inhaled in disbelief, but he wasn't finished. "I was always strong. Fast and strong. But no more. If…" He paused and corrected himself. "When the enemy comes back… if I am here… I will be a threat to everyone. To all Tenno everywhere. I will not allow that."

"We can undo whatever was done!" Jasmina protested louder, then she gasped. "No! Not now!" Odd growls sounded from all around. Rhino managed to turn his head to see a shadowy form appear. A familiar red and black warframe rose slowly from seiza. "You are _not_ welcome here, kinslayer!" Jasmina snapped. Rhino felt faint as he saw dozens, no… hundreds of Infected sitting around the room, watching the red and black warframe with unwavering intensity.

"We are not enemies, Caretaker." The red and black warframe bowed formally to the Ember Prime. "You are not one of those I hunt."

"You hunted me before." Jasmina declared and the growl reached a crescendo.

"I did." The Stalker replied evenly. "And it was wrong. You are not one of those who shattered our honor." Rhino groaned as pain came through the numbness. "You are not a kinslayer, Caretaker Jasmina. I _am_. He is right. If the enemy gets hold of him again… Will you and the others be prepared next time? Or the time after that? Or the time after that?"

"_No!_" Jasmina screamed, interposing herself between the Stalker and the immobile Rhino. "I won't let you! Not him!"

"Sister…" Rhino managed to grate out. "It's the only way…"


	20. Chapter 20

**Fallout**

"No."

The Ember Prime did not move from where she stood, an oddly shaped pistol in her hand now. The Stalker had no weapons in hand. He stood, silent and still. Not surprising since there were dozens of Infested staring at him. Anyone might be a little… cautious under the circumstances.

"Sister Jasmina…" Rhino managed to gasp. "Please…" He focused and strength came to him. Not a lot, but some.

"You are one of the _First_." Jasmina sounded almost in tears. "I will not be responsible for your death!"

"Sister…" Rhino said kindly. "You are _not_. I am a threat. A threat to almost every Tenno in this system." He looked at Stalker who did not react. "Not all, but most."

"I won't let you kill him." Jasmina said firmly, her pistol moving to firing position. Stalker shifted his stance a little, not aggressive, just ready.

"You think I _want_ to, Tenno?" The Stalker said softly. "My quarrel is with those who killed the Emperor. Who ran amok at the celebration." Jasmina froze in place and the Stalker nodded. "No one else. I do not kill for profit. I do not kill for sport. I kill to redeem the honor of the Tenno. Honor that we lost."

"I… wasn't there…" Jasmina said weakly. "I was in the hospital."

"I know." The Stalker said, bowing his head. "For the attacks on you, I apologize. I am…not always as lucid as I am currently. Richard has always been a good influence." He had a smile in his voice now, but then it turned sad. "Sister… we cannot save him."

"You don't _know_ that!" Jasmina snapped. "You _can't_!"

"Sister Jasmina…" Rhino said softly. "You cannot save me. If you _do_, this will happen again. And again. And again. I fled deep into secret places in the Void to keep the Enemy from finding me, from using me. But he did anyway. We hurt the Enemy today, but it yet lives. It will return." He sighed and then coughed. "Sister… Please…"

"I can't…" Jasmina started to say and then broke off, her posture stunned. "No. I… I won't!" She wasn't talking to either of the male Tenno! "I _won't!_" She snapped.

"Jasmina." A soft voice preceded another female Tenno into the chamber. This one wore a Mag warframe and she held a Phage shotgun ready. The Stalker froze on seeing her. "Hello again, slimeball." She said as she took aim. "Go ahead, make my _day_."

"I make no apology for what I am." The Stalker said calmly. "My… actions have been unbalanced on occasion, but I _do_ seek justice."

"But you _serve **vengeance**._" The Mag Prime said coldly. "Little bit of a difference there. You kill any who _you_ feel have transgressed. Guilty or innocent makes no difference. I was not there either, and you very nearly killed me. Because you caught me unaware. Never again."

"I…" The Stalker sighed and then knelt slowly into seiza. "I cannot defend my actions to you. To me, they are the right course. To you? I don't know. Ordinarily, I would not care… But…" He nodded to where Rhino lay. "I was reminded of what I once was." He sighed. "It has been… a long time."

"Elenia…" Jasmina said sharply. "We can't kill him. We can help him!"

"_Can_ we?" Elenia did not lower the shotgun as several of the Infested left the room. "Sister, tell me true. _Can_ we undo what was done? Can we… rip part of his DNA out and keep the rest?" Jasmina was shaking her head and Elenia slumped a bit. Her aim did not waver. "Sister… Healer has been trying to find a way. Using the scans you took when you touched him. It cannot be _done_. What was done to him…" She nodded to Rhino. "…was on the _genetic_ level. Far too deep for any repairs. Sister, _think_."

"No!" Jasmina was crying now as she retreated a pace, then another. "I… I can't… I can't do this!"

"You don't have to." The Stalker said quietly. "My burden. Not yours." The Rhino nodded to him and then gasped as pain flared. "It must be soon, Tenno Jasmina. Or he will be lost. To all of us."

"I…" Jasmina was crying hard as she stepped back. Two Chargers came up and moved to stand on either side of her, obviously offering support. Rhino barely managed to hide a gasp at that strangeness. She shook herself. "And when it is done?"

"I will be blamed." The Stalker said with a sigh. "Probably hunted." He shrugged. "Not the first time. Or even the fiftieth." Then he shuddered a bit. "Of course… if _Nikis_ joins the hunt, I might just shoot _myself_. Less painful that way."

Rhino surprised himself with a laugh that Jasmina and Elenia shared.

"Thank you for your aid, sister Jasmina." Rhino said softly, relaxing a bit. "Please… go." He begged her. Jasmina looked as if she was going to argue for a moment, but then she nodded. She bowed, formally to the stricken Rhino and then turned and left the room without a backwards glance. The Infested left with her, filing out in orderly rows. Finally, only the Mag , the Stalker and the fallen Rhino remained. "Sister Elenia…" Rhino said quietly.

"When next we meet." Elenia said quietly, but with dreadful force. "I _will_ blow your head off and leave the rest of you to feral Infested." No threat, that. A promise. Then she was gone.

"Dang those women are _scary_." The Stalker said with a wince as he rose from seiza, an oddly shaped throwing blade in hand.

"Well, of course." Rhino said with a small laugh. "They are Tenno. At least it isn't _Mag_." The Stalker actually shuddered at that and Rhino nodded. "Bellina?"

"I don't know." The Stalker said quietly. "She had no life signs. I tried. But… There was no response from that pseudo warframe thing. I am sorry, but I don't know if she… merged with the database or not."

"Thank you for trying." Rhino said with a gulp. "I am ready."

"It was my honor to see you again, Master Richard." The Stalker said as he readied himself. "I hope and pray you find peace." The Rhino took a deep breath and something flashed.

* * *

><p><strong>Schism's end<strong>

There was no pain. Nothing hurt. Indeed, he didn't feel much of anything. Everything was gray, shades of gray. But… He blinked and a line of golden code appeared in his vision. He smiled as he saw what it said.

_Protocols matched. Cross the threshold?_

"Why not?" Rhino mused. "One way or another… this ends today." He mentally tapped the line of code and it flared and vanished. Then _everything_ hurt. The pain was sudden and intense. Then he was falling, but… not. The pain ebbed and faded, but…

"Richard." The voice was familiar. Nikis sounded like hell. Rhino opened his eyes and stared at the Nekros who had been one of his closest friends. The Nekros was not alone. Many people surrounded him. Some in warframes, some in robes. Some Tenno, others humans. One…wearing a crown. She looked… worried.

"Not anymore." Rhino said softly. "I am Rhino again." Nikis winced and nodded. "You okay?"

"Alive." Nikis said with a grunt. "Hurts, but I wouldn't let them poke and prod me anymore. We needed to know what happened." Rhino looked from Nikis to the small form beside the Nekros and Ona bowed from the neck.

"Master Richard." The tiny Nyx said softly.

"I am not your master, Ona." Rhino's voice was just as quiet, but carried easily. "You must find your own way. I was holding you all back."

"So you said." Ona was crying softly and Nikis laid a hand on her shoulder. "But we missed you. So much."

"I know, darling. But we are being rude." Ona jerked at Rhino's words and nodded as he turned to face the woman wearing the crown of Orokin. "Empress."

"Rhino." The Empress of Orokin said calmly. "We have… considered all of the evidence. We were _played_. All of us. Do you know by who?" Rhino shook his head and she sighed. "Pity. I would like to _discuss_ some things with that one."

"You and me both." Rhino agreed. "All this time. All this pain. Because someone manipulated us into hating one another. That ends now. _Rachel_." He barked and one of the warframes jerked forward a step. A Saryn Prime. "Bellina fell." He said softly and the female Tenno nodded. "She wanted me to assume her role. I cannot. I choose you."

"Me?" Rachel gasped. "But… I am no leader!"

"Neither was I, Rachel." Rhino said quietly. "The schism ends _here_. From this day forth there are no 'False' Tenno or 'True' Tenno. There is only _one_ group. _One_ group who follow the Code. _One_ group who honor our ancestors. _One_ group who wear warframes and follow the Way of the Blade and Gun. We are _Tenno_."

A chorus of voices sounded form all around as Rachel and every Tenno present bowed their heads in unison. 'We are Tenno.'

"The enemy who caused this may have perished in the Collapse." Rhino said after a moment. "He or she may not have. Be wary, my kin." He nodded to a form standing by an Oberon warframe nearby. "Kori? Are you well?"

"I am, Rhino." Kori said quietly. "I have been… talking to many people. I owe many for helping me and will do what I can to repay the debts of honor I owe." She bowed from the neck to Rhino. "I only wish I could repay the debt I owe you and Bellina."

"Be happy." Rhino said with a nod. "That in and of itself will be enough." He turned to where the Empress stood, watching. "Empress."

"Rhino." The Orokin Empress said slowly. "What may the remnants of Orokin do for you?"

"I have served almost my entire existence as Tenno, Empress." Rhino said slowly. "I know not what else to do. I am… alone now." A sad murmur went around the room and he sighed. "Bellina died free of the enemy's control. It is… enough."

"No." A small voice said from nearby. "It isn't." Ona stepped forward. "Ma- Um… Rhino." She corrected herself carefully. "It is not enough. You helped us. You hid us away. You protected us the only way you could, by drawing the enemy's attention away from us while we grew up and into our power. You fought and nearly died for us. We found your broken body and put you in cryo to heal. We owe you."

"You owe me nothing, Ona." Rhino corrected her gently. "It was my duty. But more than that, it was my _pleasure_. Teaching you and your siblings was one of the greatest joys of my life."

"We disagree." Ona replied. "We are Tenno." She bowed her head and several other small forms did the same. Rhino sighed but paused as Nikis chuckled.

"Might as well give in, Richard." Nikis said with a gruff laugh. "They definitely are Tenno. They have the give of _rocks_."

"Ona." Rhino said quietly. "What can you do?"

"This." Ona held out a hand and more than one voice gasped in shock as a hologram appeared in front of her. A stone slab on which lay a young woman. She had Bellina's face... but... young. And... she wore a Valcyr warframe! "She awaits you, Teacher."

"How?" Rhino asked, stunned.

"You taught us a lot, Teacher." Ona said with just a hint of smugness. "Far, far more than the enemy could have guessed. When they took you and her, we followed. We found her first, but could not free her. But we _could_ make a copy." She had a grin in her voice now. One that faded. "She is waiting for you." She repeated.

"Ona…" Rhino groaned. "Do you have _any_ idea how many rules you just _broke_?"

"Yes." Ona's matter of fact tone brought the Rhino up short. "And you know what? I don't _care_. Rest well, Teacher. We will see you again. Someday."

"I…" Rhino shook his head as the holo vanished. "Empress?" He asked.

"I do not command Tenno." The Orokin Empress said, then she grinned. "I _know_ better." A soft, sad laugh circled the room and she sobered. "But for what it is worth… You have my apologies and the apologies of Orokin for this… travesty. If the enemy who caused this _did_ survive… We will explain to him or her why such things are not to be tolerated." A hungry growl swept the room.

"Apology accepted." Rhino said and then glanced at Nikis who was shaking in place. "Now let me go, you old coot, before you _collapse_."

"Smart ass paladin." The Nekros snapped, but his heart wasn't in it. "Richard… I…"

"Whatever else happened, Nikis…" Rhino said quietly. "You did good, old friend." Nikis jerked and then nodded a bit stiffly. He waved a hand and…

* * *

><p>Rhino stood in front of the stone slab where a female Tenno lay. She breathed. It was a virtual world. He knew it was. But he didn't care.<p>

"Bellina?" Rhino asked quietly.

"Richard?" Bellina asked, confused. "I was… I died…"

"So did I." Rhino said as he sat down on the slab and laid a hand on the now shivering Valcyr. "It's all right Bellina."

"Indeed It is." Hayden's voice preceded the First Tenno's appearance in the virtual world. "Welcome, both of you. We have been… hoping to see you again." He sat down beside Bellina as the female Tenno started to cry. "Don't cry Bellina." He said gently as other Tenno appeared in the simulation. "It's okay."

"Tears of joy, my friend." Bellina said as she sat up, marveling at the warframe she wore. "Valcyr?"

"You wouldn't take the one I built for you in life, moron." Mag's sour voice preceded her into existence. But she was crying too.

"I…" Bellina stared around and then at Rhino. "Richard… I…"

"Its okay, Bellina." Rhino said as he hugged his wife tight. Now, he didn't have to worry about hurting her accidentally. "Welcome home."

* * *

><p>The Grineer female moved through the darkness, seething anger flaring yet again.<p>

_Lousy stinking Tenno. Taking things that don't belong to them. I will show them. I will show them all! Right before I tear their hearts out and squash them flat!_

For all her anger, she was alert. This part of the motherworld was not a safe place at the best of times. Several Grineer patrols had been lost in this area. No alerts, no coms, no nothing. They had simply stopped reporting in. But something had happened to them. She had no way of knowing that the area she was traversing had once been a county called Lasria before Orokin had been founded. Nor would she have cared. It didn't matter to her. All that mattered was her anger. Her hate. Her being alert did not help.

One moment, she was marching along, following a squad of Grineer as heavy fire support. The next thing she knew, she was in a gray void.

_Well, well, well. What have we here? _The curious voice was everywhere and nowhere.

"Coward!" The Grineer female screamed. She didn't speak in Grineer however.

"_English?_" The voice sounded stunned. "Ah, I see. What is your name?" The Grineer screamed in frustration as she was pinned in place, her Gorgon machine gun plucked from her hands like a ripe fruit. She screamed insults again and again as energy played over her, scouring her nerves and scanning every fiber of her being. "Come on, dear… No need to be rude." The voice said as the room vanished, leaving the Grineer female to scream in the dark. But only for a moment.

Suddenly she froze in place as a huge mound of… something reared up in front of her. She screamed again as a tentacle shot out and encased her entire skull before she could move. Then… power washed over her mind, seeping everywhere. It was foul and dirty, but then… Everything stopped. Her armor… vanished, leaving her held upright by energy beams. A golden gown appeared and covered her.

"Ah, Marlena." The voice changed to a soothing one as the female started to cry. "It's okay. Shhh…" The fields holding her laid her out and a medical ward appeared around her, forms in surgical gown moving to close. Surgical machines powered up and moved close as well. "It will be okay, Marlena. Everything will be okay."

"Who are you?" Marlena begged as the familiar sound of a saw started whirring near her head. "Please don't hurt me. I have been hurt enough."

"We won't hurt you, darling Marlena." A mask hovered down to cover Marlena's nose and mouth and she tried to hold her breath, but a hiss and she was falling. "You are exactly what we need. We are going to give you everything you want, my very dear Valkyrie." She fell asleep and as she did, the room faded.

The scene that appeared was very different. Marlena lay on a fleshy pad, her body slowly sinking into it, her head covered by a large mass of flesh, a circular set of white teeth whirring as they cut into the bone of her skull. A tube wormed its way down her throat. If she had been conscious, she would have been screaming as her bone was removed, as tendrils burrowed into her brain through her ear canals, as organic armor was laid against her bare skin to fuse to it. Luckily, she was asleep. The real horror would come when she woke. Of course…she would not be the same.

Fifty Grineer marines of various types were affixed to the walls around the room. All of their helmets had been removed, and all had fleshy tendrils burrowing into their skulls. If they could have screamed, all would have been. If any could have begged for death, any and all would have. None could. None had that much volition anymore.

_So many failures._ The mind controlling all of this horror mused. _But now, finally, we can begin to retake this system from the filth that infest it. The filth of humanity. And you, dear Valkyrie, will be our weapon of choice against their champions. The Tenno. You will be our recruiter. You will find our own champions and we shall remake them as we remake you. Nemesis._

An invisible surveillance device hovered the ceiling, surreptitiously watching Marlena's horrific conversion. The watcher did not shiver. Indeed, she _could_ not. But the feeling of worry was the same.

"This is…" The Lotus said softly. "…not good."

**The end of the beginning.**


End file.
